ChrisB

Yes. A few of my favourites. Don?t want to hijack this thread but I do have a few more if anyone would be interested in seeing them. Will have a practice with the scanner and try and get a better scan if ya want to see some more. These one?s are: 1) Cap badge 4th (Waikato) Mounted Rifles 2) ? ? 12th (Otago) Mounted Rifes 3)Cap or Collar badge 11th (North Auckland) Mounted Rifles 4) Cab badge with Engineers collar badges NZ Railway Battalion 5 Top) Cap or Collar badge 11th (Taranaki Rifles) Regiment 5 Bottom) Cap or Collar badge IV Battalion Wellington Regiment 6) Cap badge 10th (North Otago Rifles) Regiment 7) Cap and Collar badges 3rd (Auckland) Regiment (Countess of Ranfulys Own) 8) Cap badge 16th (Waikato) Regiment 9) Cap badge 15th (North Auckland) Regiment 10) Cap Badge 12th (Nelson) Regiment Cheers Chris

Backs of the badges.

A few more Kiwi wings. Top: Parachute qualification. Left: Air Dispatch. Right: Assistant Parachute Jump Instructor. These badges are all for wearing on the shirt. Cheers Chris

Thanks for the help Laurence, JamesM and Peter. If it needed to be at least this highlights the dangers of whim buy's. Probably just as well I now stick to collecting stuff I know about, well a little bit more about. Oh well, the only bonus is that it wasn't an expensive buy. Cheers again for the conclusive identification. Chris

Hello Laurence, Here is the full shot of the shirt and the left sleeve. Brought this in 1989 from a shop here in NZ. Was the 25th Brigade patch used post Korean conflict? Cheers Chris

Hello Leigh, Thanks for the info. I?d known it was a Guards brassard but had never heard of the Guards Independent Parachute Company. After having a quick look around the web I see there is a Guards parachute platoon attached to 3 Para. From what I can find they wear the maroon beret with the para badge with the Guards blue red blue patch as a backing. No mention of if they wear the guards flash on the arm. Here is my only Canadian set of wings (Korean war period). Cheers Chris

Hello Laurence, Not the para wings. They are worn brit style on the right shoulder. Here are my only Brit jump wings. Cheers Chris

Here's a set of Kiwi SAS wings (sorry not a great photo). These ones date from 1989. I think they are the same as the UK ones. I do know that one difference is that till 1989 the kiwi wore a burgundy (para) beret rather than the sand one. Cheers Chris

Nothing quite as exotic, it's the "NZ Force South East Asia (NZFORSEA) or Kiwi patch. The printed patch was in existence from 1974 to 1989 when the NZ force left Singapore. The patch was also used by our peace keeping troops in Afghanistan in 1989 and Iran/Iraq (UNIIMOG) 1989-91. There is also a latter embroidered version. Cheers Chris

One of the pages of photos from the book.

Still in the SE of London. Both my parents lived through the blitz in Romford. Amongst the bits and pieces on my bookshelf is this rather natty little book that must have belonged to one of them (probably mum). It?s only abut 43 pages long but has some interesting info on things like the times the siren went off and damage stats. I think the covers pretty cool as well. Cheers Chris

You could give these sights a try. http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Boer/index.html http://www.angelfire.com/mp/memorials/memindz1.htm Cheers Chris

Thanks very much for the info Leigh. Just googled the name and from the photos online it certainly seems to be the place. Will eventually get to the UK sometime in the future and this is now one of the places I will put on my list to check out. Though I?m not to sure about the medieval axe throwing lessons for the missus. Cheers again I appreciate it. Chris

Last photo. Unfortunately I don?t have many stories of dads time in the police but one of the family tales involves one of the times he got into a bit of bother. As you can probably see by the photos dad was a fairly solidly built chap and at 6ft 4in he didn?t have too much of a problem with those likely lads he nicked, the likely ladies well that?s another story. The story goes that dad was called out to a domestic with some other coppers and the wife shows obvious signs of being hit so they go to arrest the husband the wife takes a sudden dislike to this news and while my dads back is turned she hits him with a kitchen chair hard enough to fracture a rib. Never turn your back on a angry women. I always see a women who looks like Andy Capps wife when I hear this story, hair in curlers but without the rolling pin. The other story is a bit lighter on details but it does have a photo. It seems the chap in the photo was suffering from either too much drink or had a mental condition and decided for whatever reason that it would be a good idea to climb the street light and perch at the top. This photo probably appeared in the newspaper the Romford Times as the back of the photo has the photographers name and the fact he was a photographer for that paper. Hope you have enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I have enjoyed shearing them. Cheers Chris

Again this one was probably taken at the same time as the above ones. Looks like he is looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack (well not a haystack but a bit of long grass perhaps). Cant have been easy with those white gloves on.

Probably taken at the same time as the photos above. I wonder if those barrack like rooms in the background are the classrooms. The old building in the left hand side background of the bottom photo looks fairly impressive. Bit of a long shot but does anyone recognise it?

Given that the uniforms are different I think these photos must be from around the time of dads police college days again.

Thanks very much for the compliments and information Pikemedals and Tom. Have a few more of dads police photos so thought, as there is some interest, I would show them. The first one appears to be taken in a classroom. If you have a look at the photo in post #3 & 4 the sgt in this photo looks like the middle sgt in post #3 and the front row left hand sgt in photo #4 ( they all seem to have some sort of qualification badge on the cuff of their right sleeve).

The photo in post #3 could be at training college. It would probably make sense with the different uniforms on display. One question though, are assignments of personnel and uniforms ready by the time of graduation? Of course there is no way to know the time line on this or how long after graduation the photo was taken but would a copper know which station he was going to by the time he finished police college? Cheers Chris

Hello Leigh, I got the date my dad and mum left the UK wrong it was 1957 not 1959. Not sure when dad started in the police force but he was in for about 7-9 yrs. By 1960 he was living in NZ though. But having a closer look at the photo in post #3 and not only are some bobbies wearing high collars and others not but there are a few different helmet pates being worn and some of the helmets have crests while others don't. I always assumed these were all from the same station as dad but most probably they are from different parts of the UK. No idea why they are all together perhaps this was a training course or something to do with the coronation, I wish I knew for sure. If you have a look at the photo in # 7 they all seem to be wearing the open type jackets (looks as though there are some plain clothes in the background). Perhaps the open jacket was peculiar to the Romford coppers before the 1960's. Cheers Chris

As fas I know he didn?t. At least the medal is not in his belongings along with the rest of his police items. To be honest I never thought about dad being eligible for this medal. Do you know what the requirements were and would it be possible to get it now? (dad passed away 1976). Cheers Chris

Last photos. I think these were either taken before setting up for the group photos shown in post #3 & 4, or for the coronation as they have their gongs on, even my dad is wearing his. Cheers Chris

From the coronation 1953.

A shot of the tug of war team and some of the silverware.

His Officers and sgt's.