Whilst compasses have probably been used by the military since they were first introduced, it was not until the late 19th Century that they were specifically developed for use by the military. It was Colonel William Willoughby Cole Verner who pioneered this development of compasses and navigational aids, intitially closed face pocket compasses such as the Verner Patent Compass, Verners Night Compass and the Verner III compass whilst working with manufacturers such as JH Steward eventually developing the Verner IV prismatic compass. This started a series of Prismatic dry card compasses whose evolution can be traced through to WWII with the Mark IX.
This period and the years following WWI saw development of more specialised compasses by companies such as Creagh-Osborne.
Manufacturers such as Dennison (a successful pocket watch manufacturer) developed the pocket watch compasses for officers which were supplied by many retailers and manufacturers from the early 1900’s to the end of WWI. This style of compass continued to prove very popular to well after WWII.
WWII saw the introduction of the MK I marching compass, using new naterials, such as Bakelite and the Mk III Prismatic compass, a compass that went on to be deveolped with many variants.
Whilst American forces saw the refinement of the WWI era Lensatic compass into an instrument that was popular and found widespread use.
There also existed a need for compasses that could be hidden in a uniform, for use in escape and evasion. Buttons, belts and even cap badges were used for this purtpose, here is yet another interesting theme for collecting.
Post WWII and more recently the military adopted the baseplate compass, such as those made by Silva and Sunto.
