ANGLO-BOER WAR CANADIAN "OLIVER" WATER BOTTLE

A Canadian “Oliver” Water Bottle In Protective Leather Holster with Belt Loop and later Cork Stopper

Canadians soldiers arrived in South Africa wearing Oliver Pattern load-bearing equipment. Although rejected by the British Army, the Canadian Militia officials recommended its adoption in 1883 and in 1898 it went into production. This equipment, named after
its designer, J.W. Oliver, a surgeon serving with the British Army in the Red River Expedition of 1870, had its own peculiar style water bottle.
The “Oliver” water bottle carrier consisted of a cylindrical brown leather holder, 2½ inches in
diameter and 8½ inches high, into which an ordinary 1 pint glass soda water bottle fitted.
The soda water bottle was used so that, if broken, it could easily be replaced. The bottle
was closed off by means of a cork stopper tied to the neck of the bottle. The holder and bottle was carried on a loop on the waist belt. In South Africa the Oliver design water bottle was found to be unsatisfactory. One pint proved to be insufficient capacity for the arid African climate and the glass was too fragile for serious campaigning. Canadian troops subsequently replaced their glass water bottles with the larger and sturdier British enamelled water bottles soon after their arrival at Cape Town.

This must therefore be one of very few that survived with the glass bottle intact beyond the war.

The 5th photo above shows what it looked like with the original stopper and the last photo where it fitted onto the right-hand side of the Oliver Pattern load-bearing webbing.

Source: O.V.S.A.C. STUDY NO.23 JAN-MAR 2008 (BOER WAR WATER BOTTLES, HAVERSACKS AND MESS TINS), O R A N J E  V R I J S T A A T  A R T I L L E R I E  C O R P S
H I S T O R I C A L  S T U D Y  A N D  R E - E N A C T M E N T  G R O U P