Item

A pair of French Army military wool serge field trousers of the 1950s era, in a khaki brown wool and named to the soldier who wore them. The waistband is stamped with his name, H. CH. BEAUMONT, marked with the size 44, and carries a red woven MITIN mothproofing tab. A solid, honest, named pair of French military wool trousers from the early postwar period.

They are cut in the U.S.-influenced pattern of the period, with a button fly, exterior suspender buttons, belt loops, side slash pockets, two rear flap pockets with buttons, and a partially lined interior with a cotton waistband curtain. They show honest age and wear, with toning, some light staining and fraying at the waistband label, but remain sound throughout. Measured flat, the waist runs roughly 16 to 17 inches across (a continental size 44, about a 34 inch waist) with an inseam in the region of 29 to 30 inches. Please treat the measurements as close approximations.

Design

The detailing in the waistband is what marks these as French rather than American. The MITIN tab refers to a Swiss mothproofing agent used to treat wool against insect damage, and that red tab is a hallmark of European wool uniform production, not U.S. issue. The metric size 44 points the same way, since the U.S. Army sized its trousers in inches. After the Second World War, France rebuilt and re-equipped its forces leaning heavily on American-pattern clothing, which is why these follow the familiar wool field trouser cut while carrying unmistakably French maker's detailing. The stamped name H. Ch. Beaumont is the soldier's own identification.

History

These trousers belong to the French Fourth Republic and the 1950s, one of the busiest and most difficult periods in modern French military history. In these years France garrisoned occupied Germany, stood as a founding member of NATO, and fought two long colonial wars, in Indochina until 1954 and then in Algeria. A soldier in French wool service trousers in this era could have worn them on a post in metropolitan France, on duty in Germany, or overseas. Named and size-marked, with its original mothproofing tab intact, this pair is an honest and displayable piece of that story and a characterful addition to a postwar European wool uniform collection.

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