20th Century British Army and RAF contract numbers Part 1: 6/CLO...*

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Between about 1944 and 1959/1960 Uniforms were frequently marked with a contract code in the format of 6/CLO/numberstring/number/CB46letter.
 
The earliest variant I have found is a 1944 issue of the 44 Pattern Mess Tin Bag, marked 6/AF/0003; interestingly a 1966 production of the 44 Pattern Mess Tin Bag, by the same manufacturer, uses the same contract number (I believe contract numbers changed when the pattern for that item was changed/modified).

 

The earliest 6/CLO/ proper contract code I have found is 6/CLO/N812/7 for a Bush Jacket by an unknown manufacturer dated 1947.

 

Prior to 1950 the inclusion of a contract code is relatively rare on white labels; it is really in the 1950s that they become more common, starting with RAF issue New Pattern uniforms:

6/CLO/7804/1/CB46B,     War Service Dress Blouse NP, FW Harmer & Co Ltd,                            1950

 

I believe the /1/ indicates the manufactere, for 6/CLO contract numbers each manufacturer was assigned a number for that specific item so if 5 manufacturers are making the same item then each of them would use the same item contract number but with a different manufacturer number. So each item will have identical contract numbers except for the manufacturers numbers. Thus, for example, I think there were at least 9 Manufacturers of the following item:

 

6/CLO/12759/2/CB46B,   Coat Great OA New Pattern, Alfred Polikoff Wales Ltd,                        1951
6/CLO/12759/3/CB46B,   Coat Great OA New Pattern, S Simpson Ltd,                                         1951
6/CLO/12759/6,                Coat Great OA New Pattern, H Phillips,                                                  1951
6/CLO/12759/8/CB46B,   Coat Great OA New Pattern, Windsmoor (Macclesfied) Ltd,                1951
6/CLO/12759/9/CB46B,   Coat Great OA New Pattern, James Smith & Co (Derby) Ltd DERBY,  1951

 

In general during white labels will have a description of the clothing item, a size indication, the name of the manufacturer, and the date it was made. Up until about 1960 the date on the label can also be cross referenced with the /|\ Pheon/Broad Arrow mark which is printed directly onto the fabric (not on a label) and the associated letter code. So all the above Coat Great OA New Pattern are Broad Arrow stamped with a 'B' or a 'C', indicative of 1951 (these letters do not perfectly correspond to calendar year, so may indicate financial year or somesuch. 'B' indicates 1950/1952 and 'C' indicates 1951/1952).

 

All the contract numbers of this type appear to conform to a sequential list, there is some evidence that some items were manufactured for over a year but there are very few instances of out of order contract numbers and/or label dates.

 

The most recent use of the 6/CLO/ contract code I have found so far is 1959:

6/CLO/43391/CT4A,        Coat Great Officer's RAF NP, Unikit Limited,                                           1959

 

By 1960/1961 the contract code format had changed to 78/CLO/... of which I shall detail further in Part 2.

 

*The Royal Navy appear not to use 6/CLO contract numbers but rather the Admiralty Vocab. identifier instead.