Felt soldier's hat with peaked crown (Type 3)

This soldier's  hat is on display at Te Papa in Gallipoli: The scale of our war.

The Army's official name for hats like this was 'Hat, Felt, Peaked Crown, type 3', but their shape earned them the nickname 'lemon-squeezer'.  Similar hats had been worn for a long time in the United States and Canada, and by Boy Scouts and Schood Cadets in New Zelaand before 1914. The first New Zealand infantry unit to wear them was the Wellington Infantry Battalion in August 1914.   Their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel William Malone, like everyone else, assumed his Regiment would be sent to fight in France and Belgium and he  promoted the peaked hat as a practical design for a wet climate.  The peaked crown and wide brim of the hat would deflect rainwater and protect the wearer from the sun. 

 The heroic deeds of the Battalion at Gallipoli and especially at the Battle of Chunuk Bair made these hats symbols of  the valour of our men.  In 1916, the peaked hat became the official headgear of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and they are still worn by the New Zealand Army on ceremonial occasions.

 This  hat was worn by Private John Hellard Christie who served on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918 with the 1st Batallion, Wellington Infantry Regiment.