thejungleisneutral

I also discovered a treasure trove of documentation on the Australian Legion of Frontiersmen whereby the Australian Intelligence Corps (a forerunner of the modern-day Australian Secret Intelligence Service and the Australian Army Intelligence Corps) called upon Australian Legion of Frontiersmen personnel for intelligence collection duties overseas, which I was not expecting...

4 hours ago, peter monahan said:

Interesting 'affiliation'!  I wonder what the RCMP made of it?  

The RCMP affiliation was fair dinkum, but was revoked in the late 1930s due to a series of "schisms" within the LoF. 

See - https://frontiersmenhistorian.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/legion-of-frontiersmen-in-canada-part-5/

"1939 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Visit to Canada. The Frontiersmen were a lauded and efficient auxiliary to the security and crowd control efforts of RCMP during this Royal Tour of Canada. This was to be the high point of LOF affiliation with the RCMP, as the affiliation was terminated in October 1939 largely due to organizational squabbles within the Legion."

A few months back I was at the Australian War Memorial doing some unrelated research when I decided to a bit of a search on the LoF on a whim. Here are a few interesting bits and pieces.

This one is the Handbook of the Constitution, Rules and Regulations of the Legion of Frontiersmen, circa early 1930s

Some books.

This one is the 2012 University of Alberta reprint of the Frontiersman's Pocket-Book. A very good book actually, packed with bushcraft and frontier lore. I'll find an original one day, but in the meantime, I am very pleased with this leatherbound modern reprint.

Geoffrey Pocock's One Hundred Years of the Legion of Frontiersmen. Another excellent book.

Roger Pocock's 1931 book "Chorus to Adventurers" details the founding of the Legion of Frontiersmen from the founder's own perspective.

Not about the LoF, but by a Frontiersman who was quite famous in his day, Australian Walter Kilroy Harris' "Outback in Australia".

Back in 2017, Canadian Frontiersman Historian Barry W Shandro released a wonderfully concise document about the history of the Legion of Frontiersmen. You can read it here - www.frontiersmenhistorian.info/notebook.pdf

Some examples of LOF-related material from my collection.

Not sure what these shoulder patches are, but appear to be from LOF's Victoria (Australia) Command.

Current/recent patrol jacket brassware - 

Collar badges - being "stabrite" I think these are for LOF officers

Tunic button up close

Stabrite hat badge.

Back of hat badge.

Original membership badge

I believe these are long service or good conduct badges.

LOF Para Wing - I wonder what the qualifications are for this award.

Current/recent shoulder chains

Current recent rank pips. 

Pre-WWI "monogram" collar badge and shirt button.

On 10/2/2012 at 18:23, n.d.gibson said:

I believe that you can aquire a copy from the University of Alberta Press http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=677 cost is around £35 but IMHO well worth it

 

Incidentally for anyone who would like to find out more about us - we have an informal gathering on the first friday of every month in the bar of the Union Jack Club in London - you would be more than welcome to come up and talk to us there

Although not a Frontiersman, I find The Frontiersman's Pocket-Book to be an excellent resource, right up there with Galton's The Art Of Travel. I own No. 211 of the University of Alberta's new edition. It is a stunningly beautiful little book, well-worth the asking price in my opinion.

For those who may baulk at dropping A$80 on such a tome, there are various electronic copies floating around the internet, least of which is this readable microfiche copy from the University of Alberta via the Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/cihm_78396 . I believe that the Hathi Trust also has a copy, but access is barred for non-US persons such as myself.