British DFC Ribbon Question

[USMedalGuy2012]

Greetings from the States...

 

I was hoping someone could look at the attached photo... The ribbons are all from Major General Levi R. Chase... referred to in another thread I was part of... "War Lord" lamented about the rest of the collection... well, I have the rest of it now, it's quite extensive.

 

The DFC ribbon is what I'm wondering about.  The DFC (UK) ribbon has a cloth rosette which seems odd.  I thought it was supposed to be silver?  Is this normal for the period, 1970's and earlier?  Also, on the individual ribbons below, do you think they are of US origin or UK?

Edited December 10, 2017 by USMedalGuy2012

[Megan]

The DFC ribbon is not normally worn with any adornment, certainly not a cloth rosette. If the recipient receives a 'second award' of the DFC, this is denoted by a bar on the ribbon when medals are worn and by a silver rosette when ribbons only are worn.

[peter monahan]

OTOH, even 'military' tailors - the chaps who thrive outside any large base -are not actually constrained by the regulations which apply to memebrs of the various armed forces and there are some wild and wonderful things out there on the chests [or walls] of current and former officers. 

And depending on the rank of the wearer, few people qualified or willing to make a complaint, official or otherwise.  The classic example was Lord Montgomery of El Alamein.  When he was serving he typically wore an RTR beret with two badges on it, completely against all regulations and radition.  But who would say him nay?  No one, apparently, as it became his 'trademark'.

My guess would be that Chase lost or never had the appropriate device for his DFC ribbon and requested a tailor to 'fix that', this being the solution.  

My two cents worth!

[USMedalGuy2012]

Pete/Megan,

 

Thank you for the information, most appreciated.  I think your point about rank may be correct, who was going to argue with a 2 star that his dress blues weren't correct?  My other thought was that the Uk DFC was probably rare enough that most people wouldn't have the slightest if the ribbon was correct or not.

 

There's another non-regulation part to his ribbons, that of the air medal, there was no regulation to cover the sheer amount of OLC awarded.  Is there any history on when use of the silver rosette started?

[peter monahan]

The awarding of rosettes began with napoleon, according to this source and was first done in the US in 1877.  I would have pegged it somewhat later in the UK, as until the late 19th century, full size medals were the norm and decorations worn on civilian dress failry rare, I think.  [https://www.hodgesbadge.com/history-of-rosettes/a/7/]

I don't know anything about the Air medal and multiples, but when Canadian service personnel earned the UN medal for service in Cyprus in the '60-'90s, many were there 4-6-8 times, especially if they were support or signals and we eventually authorized a metal numeral to wear on the ribbon because that many rosettes just looked silly!