Baby Gas Helmet

Origins

Nurses prepare babies for gas attacks

It was while Mr. Peter Parker of Haydon Bridge was insulating the loft of a local house that he discovered a World War Two relic, untouched and in perfect condition, a “gas helmet” for a baby. His find was duly reported in the Hexham Courant of 13th August 2020 with a wish that it should go to a museum or another interested body.

The Heritage Centre has been successful in acquiring this equipment on a long loan basis and it will be ready for display next season alongside our World War Two display. Some careful consolidation and display will be required since gas masks of this period used asbestos in the filter but expert guidance assures us that any risk would be minimal even if our example were not to be mounted and sealed in its own display case.

No touching or contact will be possible!

Luckily, these and other gas masks were never used except for practice. Children were regularly drilled in wearing them during lessons in school. Most hated them. Even the colourful “Mickey Mouse” masks, which were designed to appeal to infants, steamed up and the smell of rubber made many youngsters feel sick. But the gas never came.

Although it was expected that Hitler would use gas as a “high-tech” weapon of war against civilians, he chose to use blitz, bombs and rockets to break British morale, preferring to reserve gas for other purposes. It is debateable how effective these gas masks would have been, especially the womb-like baby capsules that relied on purified air being circulated by a manual pump and filter on the side.

The carrying of gas masks was a legal requirement in World War Two and, eighty years on, we are all facing the same requirement for an unseen foe against which there is, as yet, no obvious cure. Gas masks have become face masks or coverings. And we are wearing them by law in real life.

Unlike gas, coronavirus has come and has now claimed over a million lives worldwide. I suppose that we must show the same determination and tolerance as our forebears. “All Will be Well” as Winston Churchill said.

Our own WW2 Baby in a Baby Gas Helmet (or suit)