Thread: British Military War Department Razors? 1879

Hi all, I have come across a razor that is in a black case marked 'Fram' 'Real German Hollow Ground' however I am not sure it is the correct case for the razor.

The razor is marked to the blade 'The Royal Crown Razor' the handle is stamped '3 ST 71' then 'W/|\D1' 1879. I believe it is a crow foot between the WD meaning War department? Has anyone seen anything similar before?

Any info would be interesting! I want to try and figure out the history behind it.

It undoubtedly belonged to a military person. The question is was it issued or did someone buy it and put his units designation on it?

We have seen many similar to this and I think the consensus was the razor was issued.

Yep, it's British military issue.

The "WD" does stand for War Department. The "/|\" is known as the "broad arrow," and was used by the WD to mark military equipment.

The 71 and 1879 are the service numbers of the men the razor was issued to. The "3 ST" is the unit; however, this is a bit of a puzzler. The 3 is obvious; the ST is not--could be Naval, as I'm not coming up with an Army unit that correlates to the ST abbreviation (T could have been a Territorial Regiment, but the S doesn't quite fit).

If you can figure out the unit name, you then can research who the razor possibly belonged to by the service numbers on the razor.

Nice historical piece--have fun!

I wonder if it actually reads "31st" which would make more sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31st_(...giment_of_Foot

Looks like 361 to me.

Nice find, I’d oil it up, remove the active rust and shadow box it.

+1 on Euclid's post!

The 31st Regiment of Foot became the East Surrey Regiment in 1881. The tang is stamped Germany, so the razor was likely made after 1891.

It's plausible the razor was to one of the Suffolk Territorial 3rd Battalions (3/4, 3/5, or 3/6) during WW I. Those 3 BNs. formed in 1915, one disbanded in 1916, and the other 2 amalgamated in 1916 and then again in 1917 w/a new name (Cambridge and Suffolk (Reserve) Battalion).

However, the 2 digit service number (71) is too low for that time period; the 4 digit service number (1879) is possible for roughly 1915-1916, but during that period, service numbers were starting to get prefixed, with Territorial units prefixed with a T or a TF.