leigh kitchen

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A little fold out booklet / poster listing Army Trades & Employments in the British army & the units in which they were to be found, published in November 1963. And now, if "Grumpy" would be so kind as to add an example of each of the badges relevant to the trades & employments listed...........if he has a spare week or two?

A very discreet little RAOC buttonhole badge - the actual "cap badge" is only about 1/2" tall. The reverse is marked "BMCO".

Pin badges worn by people collecting money for RAF benevolent funds or the like?

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I don't know what these are, they appear to be of silk rather than nylon, I'm wondering if they are WWII era patriotic souvenirs or insignia for children's outfits from that era or later? Perhaps given away post war with comics? The GR cypher does'nt have a numeral, I would imagine it's a closer representation to "GVIR" than "GVR" but have'nt compared them yet.

The King's Crown Full Dress badge of WOII Company Sergeant Majors, &, worn on three gold chevrons that of CQMS Colour Sergeants. As a King's Crown item, introduced post WWI with the resumption of the wearing of Full Dress by The Guards (in the case of The Welsh Guards the introduction rather than resumption of Full Dress for the regiment as it was raised on 26/2/1915 & had'nt a pre-war uniform to resume). Replaced by a St. Edward's Crown version sometime after 1952. A little wear & tear evident, but a nice badge, shown here at actual size.

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One for Graham - the grenade from the 3-part silver & gilt Tyneside Scottish officer's shoulder title, but of white metal instead of silver. Am I right in thinking that these were only made in silver?

Looks like it's had a bit of polishing prior to being plated.

A Drummer's fur cap badge in die-struck yellow metal which has been plated a silver colour. A matt, frosted appearance on the back, polished on the front, this badge is toned & appears to have a bit of age to it. Memory may be playing tricks, but I have a vague recollection (as usual)that the CO & other officers of 1 RRF in the 1970's aquired the Drummer's die-struck yellow metal badges for use on their private vehicles vehicles, possibly having them chromed, but I don't think this is chromed. Could it have been worn by a TA battalion? I think it was 6 RRF who were known by the name of Volunteers some years ago?

They seem familiar Graham, possibly 1970's vintage - try your old RRF contacts out with "Dekka Irons" Ant-Tank Pl Support Coy & 6 Pl "X" Coy 1 RRF for the man on the left.

The badges in use in 1 RRF in the early 70's were dies-truck yellow metal, the heavy, crude, cast ones with a copper sheen when new, they were made in Pakistan & shipped to The Tower (where I was lurking for a few months) about January 1980, along with hackles in the colours of the old component regiments & officer's gilt & silver coloured bearet badges of the same size & design as the anod. aluminium beret badge. I got a few of the Drummer's badges at about £1 a time, hackles at about 25p a time, but never got my hands on the officer's beret badges at £2 a time - I asked, Col Connelly did'nt say no, but the matter was tactfully dropped.

Finally getting my hands on a copy of 'The Philistines', should be delivered today & no doubt will be a very inetesting read.

No museum interest out your way Merv?

Email sent.......

Fantastic - let's see who the "candidates" are

The spike needs a few blobs of solder.....

The wappen has been on the helmet for a very long time by the look of it, albeit there are two sets of holes in the leather. It's possible that the same plate has been been fitted via both sets of holes, perhaps shifted further up the helmet slightly as the leather shrank.

The wappen's been given a light going over with lemon juice, I'm not inclined to tamper more:

Reluctant as I am to start bending bits of metal & removing fittings from helmets I ca'nt see that the cockades were fitted by the original wearer of this helmet, so the posts had to be removed in order to take the cockades off. However the various fittings got on to the helmet, they've obviously been there for decades. The cruciform spike base appears to "fit" the helmet, albeit it's presumably been off at some time as a circular backing plate is missing, etc - looks like the leather has shrunk "around" the fittings. With my limited knowledge of these helmets there are round studs as worn by Prussian Dragoons on a cruciform base rather than the star studs I would expect to see on a Bavarian officers helmet. The cockade are repainted originals? They had been repainted silver & blue whilst they were clamped up against the leather of the helmet under the post fittings. The one which was fitted under the post on the right side of the helmet is a steel reichskokarde overpainted silver & blue, & the one which was on the left side appears to be of brass plated with a matt silver finish on the reverse, & painted silver & blue on the front, the blue paint looks as if it's applied over the matt silver plating, I do'nt know what if any colours are under the silver paint. I've cleaned some of the silver & blue paint off of the reichskokarde.

A very late reply - sorry. I have a red plume but the stem's been cut off to about 2 or 3 inches in length, I'm waiting for the great day when I can "fit" it to a helmet, having said that it may be a Musician's plume, or a British Royal Hoprse Guards (I don't know how they fit the helmet). I have a white plume which is a bit ratty in appearance, it has it's full length stem & wing nut at the base, again I'm waiting for something to fit it to - like a "scrap" helmet body with repro trichter etc. If I start on the basis that this is an officer's helmet & not a Dragoon NCO or OR's, what exactly should I do with this helmet? I'm thinking in terms of a gentle clean up, solder repair the spike & add a pair of repro chinscales or a repro chinstrap & repro cockades. The problem with the cockades is that the posts are fitted so that they slightly overlap the inner void of the cockades, so to remove them I will have to mess around with bending tabs & removing the very tight fitting posts.

United Nations Military Observer's breast badge, private purchase, East Timor c 2003 -04, Of painted brass, it measures about 49mm x 47mm:

Some photos of officer's & O.R.'s helmet & cap back badges on the Soldiers of Gloucestershire museum site: http://www.glosters.org.uk/collectionresults.php?from=&to=&category=&campaign=&keywords=bras&chunk=100

Back in the 1970's a schoolfriend's father had done some restoration work on the Cutty Sark - he made cigarette lighters out of large brass or bronze nuts & old pennies.