leigh kitchen

Yep. Id've thought so. just seeing the red spined wound tag made me wonder if there was some kind of significance to the red stripe - the SB is a hospital issue single piece of folded cardcard.

As an army recuiit I had to blanco waist belts a light khaki. although for the first 6 weeks they had to be scrubbed clean of the blanco and kept scrubbed clean. There's an art to blancoing. getting the correct, even layer on without caking it. A word of advice - if you think you can achieve a good clean scrubbed looking effect by scrubbing webbing with euthymol tooth powder, I can tell you from bitter experience that you can't - your belt ends up day-glo white with a little hint of pink. Really makes you stand out, not in a good way. I blanco'd white knitted gloves with white blanco once, as the gloves were a mismatched pair, slightly different shades, and I thought I'd better sort them out rather than march up and down outside Buckingham Palace with different coloured hands. Unfortunately my Sarn't Major wasn't impressed by my black metal and plastic SLR turning white in the clouds of dust that arose every time I presented arms, shouldered arms, butt saluted etcetc. I seem to remember trainer whitener being used instead of white blanco on webbing. I think a lot of people don't know tthe different coloured shades of blanco that were used by different army units, so perhaps a re-enactor nowadays would wear khaki blanco'd webbing rather than the green or grey that the unit hehe portrays actually wore.

I scrounged a couple of these from a saddlery a few miles away, on trips to buy horse feed. I don't know how problematical they may be in terms of chemical content, but I quite like them as display heads, although I could do without the wry little smile on the things face (& the "Buff" logo). Made of papier mache & used to display headwear by the company "Biff". Just off to buy some more feed for the wife's horse - I know that there's another one at the saddlery, so with luck I can scrounge that too. That's not where the helmet normally lives (that's not a shrine, it's shown on the lounge mantelpiece).

I'd never considered it before, but could the red tape along the spine of this soldbuch have the same significance? Plastic type adhesive tape, which I assume wouldn't have been around during WWII?

Thanks, that's along the lines I was thinking, any recommended supplier? I'm thinking of those made in a "safe" plastic rather than supermarket or stationary store items?. I plan on avoiding placing them on a flat surface, not that you'd believe I was that fussy from the photos of jumbled caps & berets, but they're stacked the way they are at the moment in an effort to ease pressure on peaks etc.

I'd always been under the impression (having read it somewhere) that artillery wore the ball because spikes may injure horses. Symbolic of cannon balls?

This lives outside my garden shed along with other implements that have no practical use - garden forks and spades, lawn mower. lawn roller, branch shredder, fence post digger, rakes and hoes (English hoe's, not American ones). I have no idea what it is. Anybody any ideaIs? About 3' long, fitted with a handle and a kind of hook on the hinged stem.

Probably still crop up in bar fights in Darwin? I can see that swords might be ground down, but they're not going to make a machete - more of a knife. That's a point, I have a Serbian sword, etching re. King Peter, ground down to a knife, hilt shortened, with a Mauser bayonet scabbard. Must dig it out. ned

Ta. but too much trouble for me to go to - sounds like the old "ticking" bagsbags for bearskins etc. I need to rearrange the caps so that they're not going to get bent. tear stitching etc. easier said than done. but a quick 'n easy way of protecting them from the dreaded moth is what I'm after, I know that some people use plastic bags. Wary as I am of condensation and mould that could be the answer. I'll hunt around for suitable sized bags, perhaps self - sealing, but just wonder if anyone knows of a range of suitable "archival" bags.

See what I mean - not a good "system". I"ll work on arranging the caps better. Meanwhile I need to put them each in a protective bag to guard against moths. beetles and dust.

Thanks. I keep my British coth formation signs and my British army photos and regimental christmas cards. German, Polish, Serbian, Austro-Hungarian etc army photos in protective transparent sleeves filed in boxes, downsizing storage from loose leaf binders made of "unsafe" materials. I'll do the same with German insignia. I need to protect my military capswhich are mainly crammed into small glass showcasesshowcases as best I can fit them without warping or otherwise damaging them. Preservation is more important to me than display.

Can anyone recommend a type of bag and a source of supply of them for protecting caps and berets please? I'm always wary of plastic but a form of transparent, sealable bag seems a good idea for ease of identification, a form of display and protection - the main thing - against moths and dust.

A nice book, I picked one up some years ago at a street stall in Banja Luka - lots of photos of recipients, if only I could read the text..... I always planned on putting up this list of British recipients but never got around to it - I was planning on scanning the pages not typing all the names out - the lazy option - and I still didn't do it.

I was thinking more along the lines of the possibility of the sword being made with an obsolete King ERVII hilt & King GRV blade Merv. as the hilt would be permanently covered. The covered hilt was presumably as a result of lessons learned in South Africa.

I've decided that the laurel leaves were originally gold. there are small traces of gold discernible. Here's a badge by the same manufacturer. by the look of itit. the leaves are a definite gold colour. The backing is designed to be sewn in to the shoulder seam. this one has been removed from a tunic but at least it hasn't been trimmed to an oval to make it neater and easier to display.

It would be more clever if I wasn't having doubts re. the cypher

I think that there are some later postings missing, here are a few more items in the collection. An early political eagle?

I've changed my mind - the leaves may have traces of gold on them, I'll have a closet look in good day light. Interestingly only one belt hook is fitted, on the left, the side a bayonet would be worn on. Surprisingly there are no indications of any skill at arms or other arm badges having been fitted. There is very minor wear to the tunic, the mark of a blamcoed belt, medal ribbon loops stitched on the left breast - four medals perhaps. so could have been a WWI trio and a Naval LSGC. ' alt='' class='ipsImage' > ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' > ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="421px" height="750px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px"> ' alt='' class='ipsImage' width="1000px" height="561px">

It's been suggested that the markings may be for "Naval Stores Portsmouth".

I've got the old Alf Garnet LP of marching type songs - the "Pack up your Troubles" sort of stuff.......

I see the King's crown. I wondered about the 'ER' or 'GR' issue having taken a batch of photos. "Everyone" seems to go for 'GR' but I'm not sure one way or the other. I think there's a 'V' or 'V*?'' in the centre of the cypher perhaps more visible in other photos. I it's 'ER' then either the manufacturer has used up an obsolete component knowing it won't be visiblevisible on a new sword. or the owner's replaced the blade because of damage? I don't think he'd replace it just to "change the kings". Then again how practical would it be to change the blade if the basket's fitted with the leather?

That is "GR" rather than "ER" isn't it?

Hi. I managed to get it passed through an x-ray machine a few times & took photos of the screen with my phone - not good quality images, that's down to the phone.

Don't think so, but I know what you mean - I have some chevrons off a 1902 dated tunic that have changed from gold to a blued steel appearance. If these have faded then they've done it a very uniform manner. Somebody else has told & shown me a similar RMLI badge they have which also has silver leaves. Now I compare the silver with the gold bullion,the leaves are a blue/grey silversilver colour, matching the silver on the silver & gold globe.

The latest RM acquisition. Post 1923 amalgamation of RMLI & RMA, RM Colour Sergeants badge on a 1927 dated tunic. Recent discussion on another forum raises the possibility that the silver laurel leaves as known to have been worn on RMLI badges & as shown on this RM example were replaced by gold leaves by the mid 1930's. I don't know as yet what the "NSPTP" stamp in the lining signifies. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_03/c_(2).jpg.291808a752e32860c66ae3bf1bf26a0d.jpg http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_03/c_(3).jpg.f713d8c52622f605c17c60365f4bff3a.jpg http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_03/e_(2).jpg.bdcdde185804051ff4d70f25b2b34b70.jpg http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_03/c_(2).jpg.291808a752e32860c66ae3bf1bf26a0d.jpg http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_03/c_(3).jpg.f713d8c52622f605c17c60365f4bff3a.jpg http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_03/e_(2).jpg.bdcdde185804051ff4d70f25b2b34b70.jpg