Garth Thompson

Champion of Skill at Arms. 4th Foot later becoming The King's Own

OK you gentlemen asked for it so here comes some more. Enjoy, Garth This one is for the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars.

Paul, The "F 32" stands for Fortress Regt 32. Generally you will only see the "F" with the Flack Artillery color red. Garth

Laurence, Just found this post. The design is correct for a Orq-Todt high leader but the construction is all wrong. From the picture the bullion looks like the current work done in Pakistan. Hope you didn't waste any money on it. Garth

Jim, One other thing on DIs. The better the quality the earlier the DI. The enamelling and metal work on the early DIs is far superior to later ones. Since some of the unit designs have not changed at all since the 30s and 40s the quality of workmanship and materials may be the only way to date them. Garth

Jim, On DI's I generally consider pin-backs and screw-backs WW2 thru Korea vintage but again DIs aren't my thing. I see a lot of the old names on this forum and I like the idea of being polite and helpful. Garth

Jim, I think it is a variation of the VF-17 patch. Not sure as squadrons are not my forte. Garth

Elizabeth II Color Sergeant.

Master Gunner.

Recruiting Sergeant.

West Indies Regiment

Does anyone on the forum have interest in Victorian NCO embroidered rank insignia? I've always considered these insignias some of the finest and most attractive insignias ever produced for the British Army. Here are a frew examples from my collection. Please let us see some of yours. Garth

And a few more.

A few more

Thought I'd add a few of mine and maybe get a discussion going on bullions. My favorite patches. Garth

Paul,Observed color for the a.K. officers are pink, green, yellow and burgandy. I'm betting there are more we just haven't found them yet. The actual roles played by regular officers and the a.K. are probably very similar but the a.K. officers were not career military just called up for the duration. The best referance on the LW admin, specialists and the odder insignia is Angolias Uniforms and Traditions of the Luftwaffe vol II but it is very hard to find and expensive when you do. Garth

Bill,The Flying Leader Corps tab has the golden yellow piping of flight vice the normal silver piping associated with Engineer Corps. The boards for the FLC are double colored pink underlay with a golden yellow secondary. Garth

The tabs without props or gulls are for wartime members of the various branches. They were designated a.K. or auf Kriegsdauer. Colors I've observed are Pink (engineers), Yellow (flight), Green (admin), burgandy (justice). Wreathes were either full for field grade or 1/2 for company grade. THere were 4 ranks as well as I can determine. 2nd Lt thru Major. Differant shoulder boards were worn. I've attached an example of the Flight branch tabs with two example boards. Garth

These are the Wartime Officer tabs and a single Flying Leader Corps. Sorry about the picture size, better ones when I'm an adult member of the forum. Garth

Bill,That is correct. The reserve boards are like your Ingenieur set but with a blue underlay. Good luck in finding them. The only reserve Engineer set of tabs I've ever seen are yours. There is two more branchs of Engineering you need to add to you shopping list: Wartime Engineer officers and Flying Leader Corps. Garth

Bill, Here is a picture of the tabs worn with your boards. Not to hard to find or to expensive. Garth

Bill, I'm quite sure these boards are not Corps of Engineers. The are actually Obermeister (senior admin NCO grade) for Photographic, Artisian, Cartographic or Lithographic Services. Quite a scarce set of boards. Garth

Paul,That "vet" visor is definately not a period piece nor is it LW Firefighting. The LW Firemen worn a basic fire police uniform with LW insignia. I'll take a scan of my examples and either post them or send them to you. As to LW veterinary branch I can't say positively but Gene's boards are exceptional. We need to remember the LW was the most motorized of the services and had way fewer horses than the Army. George Peterson only saw three examples of the LW Farrier trade badge in all his years of collecting LW. I've only seen one which I have. This leads me to the conclusion LW veterinary troops were very few. Regards, Garth