mikehm

Dear All, As part of a bizarre job-lot I picked up at auction yesterday, I have acquired two King's Crown RAFVR lapel badges and an Air Training Corps lapel badge, all three horse-shoe backed for wear in the buttonhole. The chrome ATC badge is manufacturer-marked A. VIGURS (ASTON) LTD. The RAFVR badge in copper and enamels is unmarked, and the white metal one with a brass horse-shoe is stamped 68644. I understand that this means it was officially issued to a member of the RAFVR during WWII. Is there any way of linking this serial number to a particular serviceman?

Dear All, I believe this image to show a Field Officer of the Rifle Brigade wearing the Crimea Medal with a single clasp, the Turkish Crimea Medal, and the breast badge of a Knight (5th Class) of the Turkish Mecidî Nişanı (Order of the Mejedie). Judging by the composition and the dates of operation of the photographer (William Savage, of Winchester), the original negative was taken in the early years of the 1860s. I think I can discern a black arm band on the subject's left arm, which might suggest that it was taken during the period of official mourning immediately following the death of Prince Albert in December, 1861. Going through Hart's Army List for 1860, I first created a shortlist of all those officers of the regiment over the rank of Lieutenant who had war services listed - forty-seven names. Deleting those who received other orders, decorations and/or medals prior to 1860; those who had more than one clasp to the Crimea medal; and those who did not receive the Mecidî Nişanı, I was able to reduce those forty-seven to three names. One of these, Fitzhardinge Kingscote, lost his right hand in the storming of the Redan, and portraits of him do not, in any case, resemble the subject of this image; another, Charles Vane Fitzroy, never achieved field rank, and retired as a Captain in 1870. The remaining name was that of Major Hercules Walker (later Col. Hercules Walker Myln). The only fly in the ointment of this identification is that he conducted a belated draft of men of the 2nd Rifle Brigade to India, and appears on a Supplementary Roll dated September, 1859, for the medal without clasp. He returned to England shortly thereafter, and married on 15th March, 1860, in Somerset. Could the issue of his Indian Mutiny Medal really have been delayed as long as December, 1861, or even later? Could the image be earlier, and he in mourning for someone else? Or is this another officer altogether? Comments, suggestions and assistance will be most gratefully received.

Yes, thanks for that, Odulf. Miniatures seem to have been worn quite often in studio portraits. Item 002 on my long-standing "Unidentified" list (see http://www.hargreave-mawson.demon.co.uk/NoID.html) even shows an officer (just conceivably Lord Lucan) wearing miniature ribbons, only. Item 022 on the same page shows what I am convinced must be an actor in costume wearing miniatures. Item 033 on the same page shows an elderly Naval Lieutenant in full dress, wearing miniatures.

That does make perfect sense. One does tend to forget when using uniform details to identify regiments or individuals that for officers of the British and Indian armies, the word "uniform" has always had a rather flexible definition! I remain utterly bemused by the pouch-belt, though.

Thanks for the welcome, Mervyn. I am looking forward to hearing the views of the membership here about this uniform. As for the question of miniatures for a studio portrait, all I can conclude is that his choice was an aesthetic one. If I may quote my own great-great-grandfather on the subject of the Crimea Medal: "By the way, I got my medal & clasps sent me yesterday. Such a frightful thing it is with Albert's filthy Coburg colours on the ribbon, have you seen any? They say that the colour of the ribbon is going to be changed. It is too frightful now. The only decent ones I see are little ones, I don't know where they come from; there is at any rate less of them than the Government ones, with the four clasps. They hang down all over one's coat."

Dear All, I recently acquired the attached portrait via eBay. It is a carte-de-visite mounted on a thin piece of square-cut board with no backstamp, which suggests it dates from the first few years of the medium - say, 1857 to 1867. On the verso is noted, in copperplate, "Col. Hume". The subject is wearing a pillbox hat (cavalry? artillery?), a black-leather pouch-belt with whistle and chain and roughly-circular belt plate (light infantry? rifles?), and what appears, to my eyes at least, to be an ordinary infantry patrol jacket. The two miniatures he is wearing are an Indian Mutiny medal with a single clasp, and another, with the curly suspension seen on, for example, the Sutlej and India General Service Medals, also with a single clasp. I have identified no fewer than fourteen officers of the British Army in the 1860s by the name of Hume, of whom twelve are ruled out on the basis of medal entitlement alone. The two remaining are Alexander Hume, a retired Major of the 101st, who was entitled to the Sutlej and Mutiny medals, each with a single clasp, and Edward Trevor Hume, Royal Artillery (late Bengal Artillery), who was promoted full Colonel on 1st July, 1885. He was entitled to the Indian Mutiny Medal with clasp for Central India and the IGS'54 with clasp for Umbeyla. It seems probable that this is Edward Trevor Hume (and there are portraits of him in the India Office collection which I can check), but can anyone comment on this uniform he is wearing? Is it credible as the uniform of the Bengal Artillery? ATB Mike