milhistry

I look forward to the SSB thread. It was my father's parent regiment and as such I have always had an interest in militaria connected to it.

I have a list somewhere of the articles bought for Beyers' uniform as Commandant-General of the ACF (see your post#18) as well as the costs. Will post once found.

Special Service Bn. c. 1934-1939. They are dressed according to the 1934 Dress Regulations for the Union Defence Force. The SSB uniform at the time was khaki drill (as a unit they did not wear the grey green option & SSB had their own chapter in the 1934 regs.). Five button khaki drill uniforms are as worn by SA other ranks pre-WW2. Khaki shorts & puttees etc.pretty standard too. Photo could easily have been taken in temperate Cape Town (e.g. Opening of Parliament, new Governor-General or similar ceremony) and photograph printed on paper imported from the UK. SSB had a detachment in Wynberg in the 1930s as well. Pre-war it was the main training unit.

If I remember correctly, the story goes that the commanding officer of the Karroo Schutters was one of the five swimmers. I'll have to trawl throgh my files to find his name. As CO he would have had considerable influence on the badge design. In the far flung karoo the badge was more than likely not an officially sealed & approved in the official manner.

The top badge is the 2nd pattern of this type. The first had a "Queen's Crown". Not sure when they were introduced, I think sometime in the 1960s. The bottom badge is. I think, post-UDI army Col/Brig used to replace the lion & crown.

Until the mid 1950s, South African Police ranking from Constable to 1st Class Sergeant wore alpha numeric numbers on their collars. Head Constables and officers wore collar badges or, in the case of senior officers, gorgets on their collars. My question is... what did the various letters stand for? I have seen numbers starting with N being describes as standing for both "Native" and "Natal" (Natal seems the most plausible as "Native" policemen wore distinctive uniforms).

1 SA Div - gold & green "diamond" 2 SA Div - gold & green circular disk 3 SA Div - gold & green rectangle (in theory - never seen one though) 6 SA Div - gold on green diamond

CTH Glengarry with Bronze badge - possibly WW2 era

Contact the Military Archives in Pretoria.(Military Archives, D DOC S, Private Bag 289, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa --- at least this was their address five years ago). Since you have his service number you're in luck (WWII pers records there are filed by serial number). They should be able to pull his record card easily enough which would give a brief record of postings etc. My guess would be this is the uniform as worn during WWII and may not represent his full medal entitlement. The coronation & jubilee medals would have been awarded pre-war in either civil or military service. MBE is the military version, so perhaps he got the MBE in WWII for training or some or other important backroom activity (e.g. radar development or intelligence). He may have got his RAF wings before the war - perhaps with the RAuxF or on a short-service commission. Probably working in Africa when the war began and joined the SAAF instead of the RAF as a result of geography. It was very common for SAAF and RAF pers to be seconded to each other's units but they usually wore the uniform and rank of their "parent" service e.g. a RAF Wing Commander could command an Air School in South Africa and a Major in the SAAF could command an RAF fighter squadron. So this one is indeed rare as it's RAF wings on SAAF uniform indicating he was RAF qualified and joined the SAAF rather than being on secondment.

Thanks for that. It confirms what I had suspected - that is was for NSM Chaplains. This raises another question or two. 1. What did NSM CPLN wear as collar badges? I assume they didn't wear gorgets. Many NSM never got issued with service dress in the late 1980s, with "affiliation dress" Nutria being the cheap alternative but due to their public role I would think CPLNs would have had service dress? 2. What rank was worn on service dress jacket by NSM CPLNs?

Does anyone know/remember what the difference was between Chaplains who wore the maltese cross rank insignia and those who wore the chi-rho monogram on a triangle?

Does anyone know whwn/by whom the "Royal Engineer pattern" BSAP headdress badges were worn? By this I mean the ones with the lion inside a circlet surrounded with a wreath and surmounted by a crown. Was this an officers' badge? Was the lion with scroll worn by other ranks only? Likewise, when was the lion with the scroll replaced by the plain lion?

Hi Can anyone identify this insignia? I knew it's not USAF and thought it may have been South Vietnam, South Korea or the Phillipines but it seems I'm wrong on all three. Thanks

There were quite a few Canadians with the SAC including Colonel Sam Steele. The SAC also wore the dented stetson to distinguish them from the Army. By Johannesburg MP he probably meant "Metropolitan Police" which would be the same as the TTP. I have seen helmet plates of the TTP but not this type of badge before. My guess is that it's for wear on an undress cap rather than a helmet.

During the interwar years, South African other ranks wore bi-lingual shoulder titles. Often they were oval-shaped with the English and Dutch or Afrikaans abbreviation placed at the top and bottom of each other so each language appeared on each shoulder. It would be interesting to know when this practice started (my guess is the WW1 South Africa/Inf/Zuid-Africa titles worn in France) and how many interesting varieties members may have. Also, does anyone know where I might obtain the following SA shoulder titles? "Q'SC/K'DK" "SACMP/SAKMP" The first one, one should think, would be as common as mud as several thousand troops served with Q'Services Corps durring WWII but I am battling to find any. I realise they may be "less desirable" than some of the famous regiments for example, and might not therefore be all over ebay, but perhaps somebody has a jam jar full of them in the garage? :)

I was rather pleased by the response to my post a few months ago seeking information on the dress distinctions of the Cape Town Rifles (Dukes) that so I thought I'd start another topic in simmilar vein. This time dealing with one of my favourite regiments (I remember cutting out pictures from the Argus and Cape Times as a child) the Cape Town Highlanders, formerly the Queen's Own Cape Town Highlanders. Dress distinctions I can remember: Service Dress: * glengarry cap with dicing and red tourie * Cutaway SD jacket in drab barathea for officers, drab whipcord "bunny jacket" for other ranks * Gordon kilt * horse hair sporran with two tassles or leather pouch (depending on order of dress and rank) * diced hose with spats and brogues * Lance Sgts wore tartan patch above Cpl chevrons Field Dress: * Nutria shirts with trousers (standard issue) * Khaki balmoral with khaki tourie, large headdress badge on tartan flash of Gordon tartan * Black boots (in lieu of issue standard issue brown) A few questions: Firstly, am I correct in asuming the CTH are now the only unit to wear the gordon tartan? When were the red shoulder tabs re-introduced? I notice the Highlanders now wear the balmoral in service dress as well, or is it restricted to certain ranks? From memory Balmoral was worn with Field Dress and glengarry with service dress, has this now changed?

If they were in GSWA 1914-15, check the "Naamlyste" (nominal rolls used for the 1914-15 star) at the Mil. Archives in Schoeman Street, Pretoria. These usually list O/C, Adjutant, RSM etc for the unit at the time plus names of those qho qualified for the star.

Thanks

Nice cap. Interestingly they were issued a blue forage cap with various covers (white, drab, green/grey) for wear on various occasions. Extract from 1923 Dress Regs:

Nice cap. Interestingly they were issued a blue forage cap with various covers (white, drab, green/grey) for wear on various occasions. Extract from 1923 Dress Regs:

Looking forward to the picture. The 1923 Dress Regs. mention collar badges for 1st SAMR (the only Regt still in existence at the time) which seems to support the Owens dates.

Nice cap & story. I have been looking for the purple ("mauve" apparently but looks purple to me) cap band for one of these for ages as well as the Chi-Rho monogram rank insignia. In 1968 the SA Army introduced a triangular rank device with the XP (chi-rho) monogram thereon to identify Christian chaplains. All padres except for senior staff officers such as the Chaplain-General were ranked simply as "Chaplain" or "Kapelaan" and wore the triangle insignia on the shoulder strap along with purple ("mauve") gorgets on the collar. Chaplains were considered equivalent status to Commandant (as Lieut-Colonels were known from 1952-94) hence the protea embroidery on the peak. National Servicemen CPLNs were a different matter though as far as ranking went. I seem to think they had adifferent insignia and were equivalent in status to 2/Lt. If anyone can clarify that would be great!

I have wondered about the SAMR stringed bugle collar badges for some time. I saw pictures of them before but have not come across a picture of any SAMR person actually wearing them on the uniform. Do you have any info about which orders of dress they were worn on? The pictures of uniforms I have seen are mostly officers wearing service dress in WW1 without any collar badges. Were they perhaps full dress only?

I think John's actually wearing his PF jet black undress patrol jacket here (CF regiments' undress was usually navy blue). Mess Dress had an open collar, chilli red facings & waistcoat worn with white shirt & black bow-tie.