Cuirassier officer's breastplate (cuirass) : French Army

Cuirassier officer's breastplate (cuirass). Nickel plated steel body comprising of a front and back piece attached by leather straps around the waist and leather and brass straps on both shoulders. At the top of the straps at the shoulders are two brass lion heads, which are attached to the back piece of the cuirass. From each lion head are two lines of brass chainmail links which run down the leather strap until it reaches a decorative brass tip with two key holes.

This cuirasser officer's breastplate or cuirass would have belonged to one of the officers in the 12 curassier regiments of the French Army during the First World War. The cuirassiers were members of the cavalry and were named after the breastplates they wore, the cuirasses. They were the last cavalry in Europe to wear breastplates in the field. The cuirass was worn on a padded cuirass waistcoat with epaulettes made of scarlet or white wool with matching fringes. The cuirasser's wore a cover of cutch-brown calico in the field to conceal the cuirass.

This cuirass was collected by Robert Emil Luks. Luks, an Australian who served with the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train under the name Luxbridge, during the First World War, lived and worked in Europe during much of the 1920s and 30s and amassed as a 'hobby' a substantial collection of German and French uniforms and headdress which dated from the beginning of the First World War before more practical less colourful uniforms and steel helmets were adopted. His collection was purchased in its entirety by the Australian War Memorial in 1937 as a means of providing colour to its displays and to demonstrate the changes which took place in combat uniforms between 1914 and 1916, when Australian troops entered the fighting on the Western Front.