Types & Materials
Until relatively recently, in historical terms at least, both the military and the emergency services relied heavily on the UK dress and sports glove industry for the provision of handwear. Much of their demand has always been for dress gloves, manufactured from black or tan leather and cotton, principally for ceremonial duties.
There were of course exceptions, especially where the gloves concerned were demonstrably protective, such as heavy duty leather gloves armoured with rivets or staples for handling barbed wire which were produced during the Second World War by industrial glove manufacturers who either set up or diversified during that period to satisfy the needs of the military and heavy industry which supplied it.
Many types of glove which could be regarded as being protective continued, until very recently, to be based on dress and sports glove styles and materials. For example, protective gloves used by the police for public order duties and training were either extended leather uniform gloves which offered little or no protection against the hazards encountered, or motorcycle gloves which, although affording some impact resistance, gave no real protection against petrol bombs. Similarly, until relatively recently, the fire service used PVC gloves for their waterproof quality but which were patently dangerous when in contact with heat or flames. The current specification for the UK military combat glove continues to have its origins in a modified dress glove.
Despite the introduction of new and improved raw materials during the 1960s (for example, the development by Pittards of perspiration-resistant leather for aircrew gloves and the invention of KEVLAR® in 1965), it was really not until the early 1990s that gloves designed specifically to protect military and emergency services personnel against hazards routinely encountered during operations and training duties, became available. Initially they were designed and produced by manufacturers with experience of countering mechanical and heat risks in an industrial environment, and included flame and cut-resistant gloves for the police and fire services. For example, the first UK contract for slash-resistant leather uniform gloves was awarded by West Yorkshire Police to BGA founder member Bennett Safetywear Ltd in 1995. It was not until 2003 that a minimum performance standard for police public order gloves was issued by the British Standards Institution (BSI).
The current wide range of handwear/hand protection products available to the military and emergency services includes the following principal types listed below, a number of which are common to all three military services, as well as the police service, owing to the similar nature of many operational requirements. For example, all four services operate helicopters and therefore have a requirement for aircrew gloves.
Although the majority of the above specialised gloves have been developed specifically for military/emergency service applications, their use is not exclusive to those services. For example, aircrew gloves are also used by commercial helicopter operators, slash-resistant uniform gloves by security companies, public order gloves by the Prison Service, etc.
Conversely, all branches of the military and the emergency service also use protective gloves designed primarily for use in industrial applications [link to industrial pages?]. These include chemical-resistant gloves (PVC, natural and synthetic rubber), welding gloves (arc and tig), and electricians insulating gloves.
