When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Wouldn't have been issued - they didn't even get steel helmets until 1916! In 'Goodbye to all that' Robert Graves has trench periscopes amongst other things sent out to him from home (a German sniper put a bullet through his first one, I think he
sent it back and got a replacement - long time since I read it though) Other ranks would be routinely humping 50 - 60 pounds of kit, I doubt if they could have moved carrying this as well.