unknown british boots

hello all,

a short intro before i post my id request:
i am technically not a collector of militaria, but i appreciate the endurance of military clothing, and therefore buy surplus gear and vintage items quite often.

in the following case, i have purchased a pair of boots on ebay that have been listed as "hiking boots."
after receiving them, i noticed two rows of letters and digits stamped onto the inside of the shaft:

top row -- A181 BMI (or BM1, cannot discern it, really)
bottom row -- A33 4 9 SK112

the inner sole is stamped "9" for the size.

the seller sent me a photograph of her wearing the boots as a three-year-old in 1967, i assume they might be up to a decade older (belonged to her father).

below are the pictures of the boots -- being an absolute layman in this field, i did search around online a bit, and i don't think that civilian footwear had iron-studded leather soles -- but what do i know. judging from the heel, they could be used on skis as well, possibly an alpine/mountain unit boot?

thanks very much in advance for any info you can share, cheers!

They're hobnail boots, which did have civilian application prior to lug soles (quite some time ago, really).

I couldn't pin down a specific year for you (though... perhaps the "33" in the stamp means something), but all of the improvements demonstrated (particularly the thick sole) would lead me to conclude post-WWI.

Google "hobnail boots" and "ammunition boots" to get similar images-- maybe even a match. I tried for a bit, but didn't come up with anything that had a strap up top like yours.

Good luck!

--Dan

excellent, thanks for the head start, dan!

cheers,
tomis

an update for those interested -- i managed to identify a stamp inside the shaft as CC41 (making of civilian clothing (restriction order) 1941) -- which means that it's utility clothing, according to my online research.

so, (initially) not military gear, but ww2 period boots ... a "civilian uniform," of sorts -- nice one!   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CC41
http://www.1940.co.uk/acatalog/an-introduction-to-utility-clothing.html

Nice one, indeed.

i have a new id case:

i recently bought a pair of boots from fleabay what were listed as "german mountain trooper boots" -- it turned out that there was a company name stamped onto the insole: "j. spencer & co. ltd." with the year "1943". size 7, i assume the company is british, perhaps?

would anyone here know anything about said company/factory?

google search turned up one semi-relevant hit about a patent for steel shafting ... thanks much in advance (pictures below):

I believe they are both variations of cold weather boots, the brown ones being of Korean War vintage. That said I may be wrong but similar boots were certainly issued for Korea

They are Boots, Ski, March and are illustrated on Page 63 of Martin Brayley and Richard Ingram's book "The World War II Tommy, British Army Uniforms European Theatre 1939-45 in Colour Photographs" copyright 1998 from Crowood Press. I would love to have a pair in my own collection. Good find!! thje Korean issue Cold Wet Weather (CWW) Boots are in Black.
Dwayne

prior to the introduction of the CWW Black Boot you mention there was a brown CW boot issued in Korea.

James K wrote:prior to the introduction of the CWW Black Boot you mention there was a brown CW boot issued in Korea.  

Lucky to have(somewhere)both brown and black versions.

dwayne, keen eyes! thanks much for your help.

I'd like to see an image of the brown Korean war CW boots if you have one.

Can I siggest they may be foundry boots?

The strap round the top, (although slightly different on the pair of foundry boots shown here) is to keep out molten metal splashes.

When I saw the first foto's, not knowing about all that was written below, I would say something of scandinavian origin? swedish due to the square nose? and prepared to use with ski bindings.