Friday 21 March 2008

Identification of regiment from military uniforms (4)

After some discussion, the following conclusions have been reached by Harry and George regarding the regiment corresponding to the badges, as summarised below:

Harry, Brett and I have been kicking this around a bit and have come to agree that it is most likely that your first three photo's are of someone who served in the 1st - 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. The fourth (later) photo is definitely Royal Artillery.

This view has been reached, given the "Spade" shape of the flames from the grenade and the respective Regimental postings of the HAC and RF's. Only the 1st - 4th Battalions London Regiment wore that pattern of badge - Battalions numbered 5 onwards had a different pattern.

Another important clue was the shorts that the two men are wearing - only someone going to tropical climes would be issued with them.

From a copy of the Regimental details of the two Regiments - HAC & RF's - you can see that only the 3rd & 4th Battalions, London Regiment went to Mesopotamia - neither the 1st nor 2nd Battalions went there, thought they did go to Malta, that was during the winter of 1914 - 1915. None of the H.A.C. Infantry Battalions went anywhere hot - Northern Italy in the winter of 1917 and that is certainly not hot.

So ... it is most likely that "your guy" served in either the 3rd or 4th
Battalions, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers). Hope that is helpful, Kind Regards, George.
Many thanks to Stew for the images, and to Steve, Harry and George for their contributions to this interesting discussion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Join my blog network
on Facebook