NAM.2000-10-6-1

Trench club, owned by Lt Stanley Thomas William Henshaw, 5th (City of London) Bn London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade), 1914-1918 (c). Lead head with wooden shaft, buff leather handle. Trench clubs were not officially issued during the First World War and were either home made, or in some cases commercially produced. They were designed to be used as silent weapons during trench raids. The could be used to quietly kill or knock unconscious enemy troops in the confined spaces of a trench. Most were made of wood and fitted with a metal object at the striking end. They were used alongside other ‘silent’ weapons such as knives, bayonets and axes. Stanley Henshaw was an insurance clerk from Action who served with the City Imperial Volunteers during the Boer War. He was subsequently part of the Territorial Force and served with the London Rifle Brigade, on the Western Front during the First World War.

World War One (1914-1918)