Uniform puzzle

[Herbert]

The attached photo of my father was taken in 1916 when he was 20. The uniform is a puzzle:

Swedish cuffs were pretty much out by then, other than heavy cavalry perhaps (Dragonen, Kuirassier). Officer style cap, portepee suggest officer rank, but collar lace is unrecognizable. Shoulder boards are indecypherable, but prehaps more like NCO insignia.

In my view it is highly unlikely that such a youngster would be a sergeant (typically experienced soldiers). Could he be an officer cadet perhaps?

Any ideas gratefully received.

Herbert

[Hauptmann]

Hi Herbert,

I'm not as knowledgeable about Imperial German uniforms as I'd like to be but I think you may be correct that he could have been an officer candidate. The buckle is the type that I believe was worn by NCO's... brass with the nickel/silver center emblem. Hope this is correct but have to wait for more expert voices to be heard.

Good luck! And welcome aboard!

Dan :cheers:

[Guest Rick Research]

Either a F?hnrich or Unteroffizier-Offizieraspirant. I'd suspect the former from the sword knot and no collar rank buttons. But too small to tell.

Was he an officer or not?

If commissioned, his date of rank and unit will be retrievable as Glenn slogs through the hundreds of thousands of names in the Milit?r Wochenbl?tter indexing them all so we CAN find obscure wartime Leutnants der Reserve.

What's his name?

[jaeger7]

Sorry fellows, but I am not sure if I see a Portepee in this picture.

Might you do a bigger scan of the sword-knot ?

And of the shoulder-boards, please.

Regards

jaeger7-de

[Herbert]

Either a F?hnrich or Unteroffizier-Offizieraspirant. I'd suspect the former from the sword knot and no collar rank buttons. But too small to tell.

Was he an officer or not?

If commissioned, his date of rank and unit will be retrievable as Glenn slogs through the hundreds of thousands of names in the Milit?r Wochenbl?tter indexing them all so we CAN find obscure wartime Leutnants der Reserve.

What's his name?

Dont know his rank Rick, but if he was indeed an aspirant/cadet, he hopefully got a commission. Perhaps Glenn can track him down. His name was:

HENRY MARTIN FRIEDRICH KURT HARRISSON

BORN HAMBURG 1895

Fingers crossed!

Regards

Herbert

[Herbert]

Sorry fellows, but I am not sure if I see a Portepee in this picture.

Might you do a bigger scan of the sword-knot ?

And of the shoulder-boards, please.

Regards

jaeger7-de

Thanks Jaeger - I'll try to improve the scans as you suggets during next weekend

Regards

Herbert

[Herbert]

Hi Herbert,

I'm not as knowledgeable about Imperial German uniforms as I'd like to be but I think you may be correct that he could have been an officer candidate. The buckle is the type that I believe was worn by NCO's... brass with the nickel/silver center emblem. Hope this is correct but have to wait for more expert voices to be heard.

Good luck! And welcome aboard!

Dan

Thanks for thr comments Dan - and also for the welcome.

I plan to keep trying!!

Rgards

Herbert

[Herbert]

Sorry fellows, but I am not sure if I see a Portepee in this picture.

Might you do a bigger scan of the sword-knot ?

And of the shoulder-boards, please.

Regards

jaeger7-de

Guten Abend Jaeger,

Herewith an attempted enlargement of sword knot and shoulder boards. The quality of the photo is evidently v. poor. If too blurred I can try again.

Mit freundlichen Gruessen

Herbert

[dwmosher]

Herbert

Your father was an field artillery Unteroffizier wearing the M1907 waffenrock and armed with an artillery "dove head" saber. I don't believe he is wearing an officer's portepee, based on the shape. Field artillery units were considered "mounted" so the sword strap would be in brown leather, not cloth, for other ranks. Also, he is wearing the M1907 shoulder straps which had a feldgrau base, cypher/number in red and piped in the specific army corps. You stated that your father was born in Hamburg, which would have been in the IX A.K. The piping would have been white, which would appear to be on his shoulder straps. Based on this, there are three possibilities for his unit in that army corps; FAR9, FAR45 and FAR60. His Prussian cockade would eliminate FAR60 (Mecklenburg). The closest I.X. A.K garrison town for field artillery is Itzehoe, approximately 50 miles from Hamburg, so, with a leap of faith, there is a strong possibility that your father was in Feldartillerie-Regt. General-Feldmarschall Graf Waldersee (Schleswigsches) Nr. 9.

Hope this is of use to you

Dave

[IrishGunner]

Yes, I also would like to see the shoulder straps more clearly; but I don't know if that's possible even with a better scan.

Are your sure about the name; Henry would be Heinrich in German. And Harrisson doesn't seem very German either.

[Herbert]

Yes, I also would like to see the shoulder straps more clearly; but I don't know if that's possible even with a better scan.

Are your sure about the name; Henry would be Heinrich in German. And Harrisson doesn't seem very German either.

Rick,

I'm afraid I can't improve on the scan. The quality of the picture is the problem – unsurprisingly since it dates from 1916. I like to think the boards are piped in white, which fits with the Prussian army. It's impossible to see what may be on the top of them. However, as you may have picked up from the thread, I have a pair of field glasses with artillery scales on the lenses and an exploding grenade motif engraved next to the left eyepiece

He was indeed christened in Hamburg on 1/08/1895: Henry Martin Frederick Kurt Harrisson and certainly used Kurt as his first name in Germany. His grandfather arrived in Hamburg in 1832 from Cork, Ireland, so he was of British descent, but with 100% German mother and grandmother.

Any ideas on his rank would be much appreciated (contrary to some of the thread comments, I believe one ca detect a porte-epee wrapped around the saber hilt)

Herbert

[Mike Dwyer]

The NCO lace on the collar and cuff, without the NCO button, implies he's an Unteroffizier. I tried to enlarge the shoulder strap and I think I can see black/white piping around the edge of the strap indicating a one year volunteer, but I can't be certain.

Edited July 26, 2010 by Mike Dwyer

[Herbert]

Either a F?hnrich or Unteroffizier-Offizieraspirant. I'd suspect the former from the sword knot and no collar rank buttons. But too small to tell.

Was he an officer or not?

If commissioned, his date of rank and unit will be retrievable as Glenn slogs through the hundreds of thousands of names in the Milit?r Wochenbl?tter indexing them all so we CAN find obscure wartime Leutnants der Reserve.

What's his name?

Rick,

How can I persuade Glenn to keep an eye open for Pa's name as he "slogs" through eh Wochenblaetter??

Herbert

PS Photos on the original thread ref Herbert (not sure how to do this!)

[AOK4]

No Harrisson among the officers and higher NCOs of FAR 9 (I checked the regimental history).

[AOK4]

I checked FAR 45 and didn't see the name Harrisson there eithere (only the Kriegsranglisten of 1914 and 1918 are in the book though).

[Herbert]

Many thanks. As has been pointed out,on this blog, Harrisson may not have been a particularly convenient surname at the time, so I wonder whether he may not have used his mother's maiden name of Ahrens.

The only information I ever got from my mother was that he ended the war in Rotterdam - or close by. She gave no explanation, but the location is intriguing given that it is 45miles from Doorn...... Are you aware of any records of the Kaiser's staff when he went into exile there?