Graham Stewart

We would have to see a piccy as it's known that they did wear a Field Service cap, as well as the Torrin cap pictured below;-

Another lovely Christmas/New Year card for 1915/16 from 'Ed', who was obviously serving with the 19th(Service)Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers(2nd Tyneside Pioneers).

Latest addition to the RRF collection a "Fifth Fusiliers" title in subdued. The new Territorial Battalion of the RRF consisting of;-

H.Q. Coy.

'X' Coy.

'Z' Coy.

'D'(Rifles)Coy. Formed from the remnants of the 7th(Durham)Bn, Light Infantry

A unique combination of Fusiliers and Rifles based around both Northumberland & Durham

Full marks to Leigh - RE Signal Service, wearing the blue and white armbands.

Looks pukka to me and the belt buckle sports a Victorian crown.

The thread hole should still be visible, but the problem would be getting hold of a toorie that is the exact shade of khaki to match the cap mentioned.

Not that I'm aware of and I did have a WWI Tyneside Scottish Balmoral myself years ago, but the toorie sadly fell off.

Tony - I think you're possibly reading too much into this group and you're probably unaware that the bulk of Britains Home Guard was made up of WWI Veterans(remember "Dads Army" - "they don't like it up em you know"). In my honest opinion you're possibly simply looking at one of these old boys who has become a member of the Home Guard and therefore entitled to the medal.

I have a lovely Northumberland Home Gaurd Majors BD blouse and trousers which are sporting a WWI pair of ribbons and he too would have been eligible for the Defence Medal. My thoughts are these medals probably made their way overseas either post-1950/60's when thousands migrated to Australia or a collector bought them.

Don't know about being skimmed but none of these medals awarded to British recipients that I've handled were named anyway and if I remember correctly no WWII medals were issued named apart from gallantry awards. I have my grandfathers Defence Medal, and he served with Durham Home Guard during WWII and it isn't named either, this is despite all members of the Home Guard had both rank and regimental numbers.

I think I once read somewhere that the War Office deemed it too expensive to name medals as they had done in WWI and so unless you get them in their original boxes with some provinence you're stumped as to whom they belonged to.

Try the lads who post in the RAF & Commonwealth Air Forces section on GMIC. I think you'll find someone may have a post-1953 RAF List somewhere or know the wherabouts of one. Generally post war Lists are easier to find than war time Lists and less expensive.

If it is a "Lt John", then you would require a post-1953 "R.A.F. List" to go through to find him.

They are also to be found in whitemetal for Volunteer units.

The plume could be correct, as it appears to be horse hair(but sun bleached) for the O/R's, as is the cap itself, and as you say possibly lacking the ring, which keeps it compact. To be sure you'd need to see the stem of the plume which should be a long brass one tapered at the end. I used to have a few Rifles plumes years ago and found them to be nice items in their own right.

4255 Pte Albert Edward Fiske, Coldstream Gds. Beacame L/Cpl and later Lieutentant, Coldstream Gds. Becoming a "Lieut" within the Guards from the ranks during this period of time was highly unusual and so wonder what his background was. I believe all of the Guards original "Attestation" papers are still held by the Guards and weren't transferred to the National Archive, so you could get very lucky here with this group.

Before our Guards chums leap up and down at his rank of "Private", may I remind them that the term "Guardsman" wasn't given until post-war.

"Either way I'm happy it's mine!"

Too right - as in all of my years of collecting I've seen less than half a dozen of these rather large badges. I also have to agree with you on the fact that when seen worn with the fur cap it just doesn't look right at all.

I think I'm also right in saying that some of the first RRF capbadges were also with a bi-metal finish, pre-dating the current bi-metal one. I'm saying this because my old mate Ed Forrest(late 1st Bn,RNF) was one of those transferred to the 1st RRF in 1968 and he showed me his original bi-metal capbadge, which had me stunned, as I always thought it was only ever produced in anodised aluminium. Whether or not it was private purchase I couldn't say, but it was the genuine thing.

It was always disputed as to whether or not it was ever worn in the fur cap until the photo appeared in the MHS Bulletin as mentioned by TI. However as he mentions they wear a white plume and not the familiar red over white as would be worn by the RRF, so it appears we're looking at the period of the "Fusilier Brigade".

I too have one of these large Fusilier badges as illustrated by TI in mint condition bought in Warwickshire in the early 80's, but mine has a black felt backing shaped slightly larger than the badge itself, which leads me to believe that they were eventually worn on the Pioneer aprons.

Hopefully if I get home next month, volcanic ash permitting, I'll try and post photo's of some of the more unusual RRF badges.

Sadly all of my notes are at home in the UK regarding this subject, although I'm sure Leigh will come in with an answer for you. However we did start a Northumberlands section here, if you haven't already been there;-

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=25563

Leigh - if you're into bands have a skeg at this wonderful site;-

http://www.ibew.org.uk/vbbp-uk.htm

Top photo certainly looks like a member of one of the Australian Light Horse units, with the addition of the plume in the slouch hat. Khaki Drill uniforms are a minefield as there seems to be no set pattern at the beginning of the century as judged from the many photo's I've seen over the years. It makes you wonder if "private purchase" was in vogue for some units.

Noor - notice the pencilled in word next to Daniel's regimental number? I suspect the word is "Returned", which often means the recipient never received his medals and that they were returned to the Medal Office. This was possibly due to the fact that he may have moved house or in some cases they were returned because the receiver was disillusioned with the whole aspect of the Great War and it's effect's on those taking part.

"He was in the Queens Regt. but I don't know with which battalion he served. He was a territorial, the local TA unit being the 22nd but as I said, I don't know who he went to SA with. His QSA was was unfortunately stolen in the 70s but I have his BWM."

The Territorial Force wasn't created until 1st April 1908(today being their 102nd Birthday), so if he was serving in the Boer War and he wasn't a Regular then he was probably a member of a Volunteer Service Company. The felt or slouch hat was a common item among Volunteer Battalions, whereas apparently unseen among regulars.

See this link regarding V.S.C.'s;-

http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2010/03/volunteer-service-companies.html

Very, very nice. I hadn't realised that they'd taken the undress frock coat to model these patterns on, however looking at it you can certainly seem the similarity between the two.

The superbly illustrated book "The Thin Red Line", by the Fosten brothers has numerous coloured plates covering the period 1881-1900 for both officers and other ranks. The Osprey series of books also cover the period, however the period 1900-1914 did see a other changes universally, but these seem less well documented. From memory I think you will find there were changes for 1900 - 1902 - 1909 - 1913.

The disc & suspender look like a one piece, but the disc is tilted round to one side - any chance t's a genuine disc attached to the suspender? Any naming around the edge of the disc?

My thoughts too - a gash repair to the geuine item???

Leigh - just a quick question referring to the illustrations. Is the coloured illustration not a "Barrack Warden" as opposed to a recruiter, as he's wearing a Royal cypher capbadge? The recruiter photo's I've seen, always seem to portay regimental capbadges rather than the Royal cypher.