TOPIC:

Hello Iain,
Well, I can see you are !
In the British Army khaki was approved for all foriegn service in 1896, it had been tried out in Egypt in 1885 and was being worn in India in the 1890's as standard, by that date, some regts had their own metal pagri badges, such as the Buff's, but, most did not, it was for this reason that you find an amazing number of differant badges being worn both on the helmet and its cover.
In the case of the county regts, you can group them into three, the first are the cut and shaped epaulette from the home service scarlet full dress tunic, this was, as I am sure you will know, withdrawn on the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, always white on scarlet!
The second is the basic bit of material, cut into the desired shape, then attached to the pagri or cover, for example the 1st Lincolnshire wore a white rectangle as a flash at the Atbara and were photographed on the morning of Omdurman so attired.
The Highland Brigade wore just a square or diamond shaped flash of the regt tartan of each particular regt during the Boer War.
The third is the purpose made flash for the helmet and as the Boer War went on, the slouch hat, they did tend to get rather smaller as the war continued.
The one I've shown here falls into this last group, they should not be confused with the shoulder titles (i.e. actually worn at the top of the sleeve! Not Epaulettes!) worn on the home service khaki serge tunics circa 1902-1908.
The curve is the wrong way! moreover, the material and the way it is made is rather different and some regts did not wear them anyway.
Hope this helps you, regards Frank

iaindh wrote: Hi Frank,

thanks for displaying it; as you say it looks very much like a cloth shoulder title

regards,

Iain

Hi Frank,

thanks for the detailed explanation, I appreciate it.Less now! Its easy to get references to the uniforms but far more difficult to get references to the insignia!
Didn't notice the title was the other way up

regards,
Iain

Hi again Frank,
I forgot to mention that's a nice group! I was too preoccupied with the flash but I see the bars are for Belfast, Elandslaagte and Defence of Ladysmith. Its a nice idea to use the map as the background! Very impressive!

Hi Paul,
please dont mention Mafeking when I'm trying to get information out of Frank

regards, Iain

coldstream wrote: Hello Frank,
Thats a very nice group, complimented with the badge and flash.

Paul

Frank Kelley wrote: Hello Iain,
Sorry, I had meant to reply, Paul mentioned the word Mafeking! and I got very excited and then Mike showed his DCM! and I got excited again.
In answer to your question, yes.
Regards Frank

iaindh wrote: Hi Frank,

my interest still lies in headdress badges but I was just trying to establish what was worn when.
Do you have any examples of the curved helmet flash?

regards, Iain

Hi Frank

On seeing that pair of medals, I raised the position of a Devon QSA on my list of "must haves". Strangely, this list never seems to gets any shorter - only the order of the items on it changes.

In addition to thanking you for the reminder about the Devons, my gratitude also for more information on badges of the Boer War.

Regards
Brett

Hello Iain,
The Devon's is shown in your artists impression colour plates on here, but I did say to you that the actual flashes do differ somewhat.
There were just so many different badges being worn on helmets during the golden age of empire, another thing worth mentioning here is that the centres of the home service 1881 pattern blue cloth helmet plates were also worn on foriegn service helmets, so if you ever see one with the three copper wire square loops removed and a long slider added, you will know what that is! they were also worn as a glengarry badge until the FS cap was introduced.
Yet, you just don't see it in photographs, you can go on forever with this and then you get all the Great War types and those worn in India in the 1920's and 1930's.
I have often wondered just what exactly the Gloster's wore in South Africa,
now then, we all know they wore helmets and later slouch hats too, but did they wear that large bi-metal back badge from the 1881 pattern helmet as well?
Regards Frank

Frank

iaindh wrote: Hi Frank,

thanks for the detailed explanation, I appreciate it.Less now! Its easy to get references to the uniforms but far more difficult to get references to the insignia!
Didn't notice the title was the other way up

regards,
Iain

Gentlemen,
That photo was never intended to be on here, I did it some time ago and it is not really an appropriate one to use in this particular post, but, it was easier to extract it from the media than trying to find that helmet flash, I will try and find it and show a proper photo, I do have a couple more too.
Regards Frank

iaindh wrote: Hi again Frank,
I forgot to mention that's a nice group! I was too preoccupied with the flash but I see the bars are for Belfast, Elandslaagte and Defence of Ladysmith. Its a nice idea to use the map as the background! Very impressive!

Hi Paul,
please dont mention Mafeking when I'm trying to get information out of Frank

regards, Iain

coldstream wrote: Hello Frank,
Thats a very nice group, complimented with the badge and flash.

Paul