leigh kitchen

"23rd Fusiliers Privates Firing From a Trench" - Victorian Royal Welsh Fusiliers showing the blue facings of a "Royal Regiment". The artist was Arthur Payne, brother of Harry Payne. About 6" tall. You can't help but compare this with the familiar images of WWI trench warfare.

3rd Dragoon Guards Major, Review Order, this one's about 9" tall. Victorian Cypgher on the saddlecloth.

The British certainly don't appear to. The only people I've ever met who express nostalgia for the good ol' day of the Raj have been Indians - admittedly fairly senior army & police officers. If anybody has any spare old DVDs of bagpipe music & marches then I can forward them to one such officer who lives in Simla & loves Kiplng, the skirl of the pipes & British army band music. Sorry - I'm veering off topic. I'll dig out my few Indian medals

20th Hussars.

19th Hussars.

Silk cigarette cards by BDV, I think that they were issued during WWI. How accurate are these, with those strange looking regimental numerals? These measure about 6" x 4", & were also issued in the smaller conventional size of such cards - a couple of inches by a couple of inches. This one represents the drum banner of the 4th Hussars, with Queen Victorias cypher & crown.

A few more...

I have a collection of silk cigarette cards, mainly of military subjects such as cap badges, but also others such as national flags, coats of arms & the only ones that my wife has ever allowed framed on a wall are of chinese porceain. I have no idea who issued these with their cigarettes or cigars, they've obviously been sewn in to a cushion cover or similar at some time. Victorian or Edwardian?

A Fiield Officer of The Rifle Brigade, by Harry Payne, published by "Stewart & Wolf" of London - & printed in Prussia, so if you needed a clue that it's pre - WWI, that's it. Even before the war there was great rivalry between the British & German card producers, the British even produced posters etc which spoke of the struggle as if it were war. Edwardian, I believe.

Ah right, I thought that would be the configuration before the end bits were briken off - probably happens when the stripe's tabs are forced back for removal from clothing & the abcking plate.

Yes, it's an award for notable service, but instead of being a medal the symbol was small metal oakleaf to be worn on tunic or medal ribbon.

Ta, I'll be digging out & posting more, thy're the sort of things that go great with displays of medals, badges, old fashioned toy soldiers - but mine just live in albums.

Check out this site re V2 launches, it's really interesting: http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/timeline.html And you can tell your nan here's one of the buggers that lobbed that V2 On Woolies in Deptford on Saturday Nov. 25 Launched by Batt. 444 or Batt. 485, Wassenaar, Duindigt, A4 rocket fired, (time unknown), impacted crowded Woolworth's store in London. 160 killed, 108 injured. I would imagine your nan would have given him a good handbagging, same as mine would - you can just hear it can't you? - Bloody V2's you'll have someones eye out with one of those if you're not careful". In fact, never mind the handbag, he probably deserves the hat pin all grannies carried Anyway, meet Schirrmeister Heinrich Gontgen of Art.Abt. 485 & Art.Rgt. z.b.V. 902 (I bought his soldbuch, this photo & some other documents a few weeks ago). His unit probably did that one, & they did these - just a few "local" V2's from a quick scan of the site I've posted the link to - Woolwich, Orpington, Greenwich, Chislehurst Beckenham etc 1945 Mar. 03, (12.13 hours) - Batt. 1./485 (Art. Reg. 1./902), Den Haag, Scheveningen, rocket fired, impacted Deptford. Mar. 08, (12.01 hours) - Batt. 1./485 (Art. Reg. 1./902), Den Haag, Scheveningen, rocket fired, impacted Lewisham. 5 Dead. (*JP) Mar. 11, (+/- 19.58 hours) - Batt. 3./485 (Art. Reg. 3./902), Den Haag, rocket fired, impacted Deptford. 9 Dead. (*JP) Mar. 17, (12.37 hours) - Batt. 1./485 (Art. Reg. 1./902), Den Haag, Scheveningen, rocket fired, impacted Deptford Creek, Greenwich. (*JP) Mar. 26, (15.18 hours) - Batt. 1./485 (Art. Reg. 1./902), Den Haag, Scheveningen, rocket fired, impacted Bromley. 1 Dead. (*JP) Another "good one" by his unit was: Mar. 08, (+/- 10.58 hours) - Batt. 3./485 (Art. Reg. 3./902), Den Haag, rocket fired, impacted on the boundary of Finsbury borough and City of London borough. Direct hit on block of Smithfield Market, corner of Charterhouse Street and Farringdon Road. One block totally destroyed, others severely damaged. Gas main and water main fractured, underground railway damaged. 110 Dead, 123 seriously injured. (*JP) Some estimates give more V2's landing in Holland than in UK, & a noteworthy target was the Bridge at Remagan, apparently Hitler ordered its detruction after its capture & one hit killed 3 American soldiers. Belgium Antwerp 1610 Luttich 27 Hasselt 13 Tournai 9 Mons 3 Diest 2 France Lille 25 Paris 22 Tourcoing 19 Arras 6 Cambrai 4 England London 1358 Norwich/Ipswich 44 Germany Remagen 11 Holland Maastricht 19

A Drummer Boy of the 3rd Bn Scots Guards, an "A. & G. Taylor's "Orthocrome" Series of Copyright Pictorial Post Cards" publication. An Edwardian card (the reverse states "By Appointment To Her Late Majesty", it was posted in November 1905 East Dulwich - Bruxelles, Belgium.

The Grenadier Guards, 2 Privates (as they were still titled at the time) & a Boy, in Review Order. "The Short & the Tall" was & still is a favourite of publishers & squadies having there photos taken, although this does'nt appear to be posed for the humour content. A Raphael Tuck & Sons card of Edwardian times.

Not one of those nice white enamelled & gilt circular badges? I missed one of those on a Canadian dealers list a few years ago.......... I think that's part of the charm of things like these scraps - they remind you of a long lost childhood, not yours, one that you never experienced in the Boys Own days of Sherlock Holmes & Bulldog Drummond, Queen Vic & an army in red tunics.........

An officer of the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys) in Review Order, post Anglo-Boer War, HRH Nicholas II Emporer of Russia was their Colonel in Chief at the time. A Harry Payne card by Raphael Tuck & Sons, I'm not sure if this is a King Edward VII or King George V card, I think it's KE VII.

This one is of a Trumpeter of the the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), in Marching Order. I believe that it's an Edwardian card, it's an "EFA Military Series" card & it was posted East Dulwich - Ostende, Belgium in July 1905.

The inside

This card is of the 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regiment - or as they preferred to style themselves the 48th Foot, ignoring the amalgamations & renamings of the Cardwell Reforms of 1881. It is for the year 1918, when they were still part of the British Expeditionary Force. Ornamented with a little strip of "regimental ribbon" & portraying the Colours, it's an attractive card.

This is an "E.F.A Military Series" card (were'nt EFA German?), of the drum horse of the 8th Hussars & is postmarked 1905 - sent from West Ealing to Ostende, Belgium. The banners are Victorian although the card is, I believe, Edwardian.

I've never collated information on the British army's drum horses, but as I collect old British army photos & postcards & also old cigarette cards & silks I've come across various representations of them. Cigarette cards can provide detail that can't be found elsewhere so I've read, but they can also provide totally inaccurate information showing the wrong colours or designs of drum banners thanks to artists assumptions. Here's a "Rapheal Tuck & Sons" card of the drum horse of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, a post Anglo-Boer War Edwardian card showing the Victorian banners in use.

Will do, I have a few of RMLI, RMA & RN, but I think I gave away all my duplicates a few years ago to a mate in Sweden. I've never got into discovering who actually produced these things, they were churned out back in the days when adults as well as children collected these paper scraps of virtually anything - birds, flowers, animals, sweetheart motifs, all kinds of subjects. They gave their name to "scrapbooks" & you find them applied to things like lampshades & stuck down on enamelled kitchen ware, layers of clear varnish built up over the top.

They only do that at the christmas office party.........

The left hand & centre buttons are King George V ? the cipher of King George VI draws in slightly at the bottom rather than widens slightly as these do. The right hand button is King Edward VII, his cypher is similarly shaped to that of K George V, narrowing at the top. Buttons were issued for King Edward VIII?s reign, & his cypher is similar to QE II?s but more crowded & squarer looking in the middle., & their ciphers don?t narrow at the top like King Edward VII?s. What else have we got in Davey Jones's locker? Yes, I just noticed the bits of stuff there - Old Navy Shag steeped in rum or something like that?