Officer tunics

[o j kirby]

Hello,

I have been lookng at photos of WW1 Officers cuff rank tunics. I see that some have a waist band, and others do not. My tunics do have this feature.

Was there a standard pattern of tunic, or was the variation down to the tailor? Is there any dating evidence to be deduced in the difference?

Cheers

Owain.

[Andrew Upton]

I have been lookng at photos of WW1 Officers cuff rank tunics. I see that some have a waist band, and others do not. My tunics do have this feature.

Was there a standard pattern of tunic, or was the variation down to the tailor? Is there any dating evidence to be deduced in the difference?

It's a mixture of both - I've seen wartime dated tunics both with and without the extra waistband material. It tends to be seen more on earlier tunics, and less so on later tunics. I've also seen this band appear on several tunics from the late 30's and early WW2. As a result I wouldn't put any hard rules on dating a tunic simply because it had the band or not.

[dutchbarge]

Hello,

I have been lookng at photos of WW1 Officers cuff rank tunics. I see that some have a waist band, and others do not. My tunics do have this feature.

Was there a standard pattern of tunic, or was the variation down to the tailor? Is there any dating evidence to be deduced in the difference?

Cheers

Owain.

Of my 13 cuff rank OSD tunics, I'd agree with Andrew, that the earlier ones seem to favor a false belt (and ticket pocket ) while the later ones do not. Several of the later cuff rank tunics, which do not have the false belt, do however have a single seam where the top of the false belt would have been located. Also, tunic made after mid 1915, seem to have a collar flap and button under the lapel. Whether this was actually added to close the collar around an HP hood or not is the subject of debate. However all of my osd tunic made after mid 1915 have it and none before do.

The best way to date a tunic is if you are fortunate to have a tailor's label with the owner's name and rank . Using the online Gazette it is very straightforward (thought sometimes frustrating) to find at what date he held that rank. The Germans were more consistent in dating tunics, but sometimes so did the British.

Cheers, Bill