Grenade unkown origion please help

[Liam9098]

Hey Guys,

We need help identifying this old grenade we need the make and model and country of origin.
We have been unable to find it anywhere.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Snufkin]

British Bellamy experimental. See response to your post in Identification thread.

 

[siegfreid]

British WW1 Bellamy . One of the early experimental grenades that later led to the development of the No 54 . Your one should clean up quite well . Not a common grenade .

 

[Millsman]

Does this discovery hint that New Zealand Troops may have been involved in the field trials?

John

 

[Bonnex]

John,

I have no documentary evidence to support it but I do think you are right. The Bellamy grenade was essentially developed by the Experimental Section/Branch at GHQ France. There were three different designs to reach a production standard, the one shown which is a Bellamy Type "A", a version with a fabricated fuze known as a Type "B" and an improved Type "B" which had a safety lever. The only Bellamy Type "B" known to exist is in New Zealand and I expect it is there because a NZ officer was involved with the Experimental Section and/or trials.

The Bellamy "B" with safety lever was highly regarded but trials of it ceased when the war finished. For some reason (!) the Bellamy did not compete with CSOF pattern in 1923 experiments. As you know the CSOF (Humphris) design evolved into the No 54 Grenade and ultimately gave us the No 247 fuze etc.

 

[Millsman]

Thanks Norman.

I find this experimental subset very interesting. We have the D&G, The Bellamy, The Humphries ball, the No 30, the No 54 all with overlapping designs. The D & G probably merits more praise than it gets.

John