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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Bizarre cap East Surrey Regiment


high wood

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Whilst looking through my East Surrey Regiment albums to see if I had wrongly identified any 23rd battalion London Regiment soldiers I was surprised to see that this soldier's cap has the letters E & S either side of his cap badge. Very strange and very unofficial I would imagine.

post-6480-1268599287.jpg

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His boots probably had "L" on one and "R" on the other, too.

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My postcard photograph is definitely original and does not appear to have been doctored. In my experience people tend to write the identified unit on the back of post cards. The letters appear to follow the curve of the hat band.

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The Queen's South Africa medal ribbon and the fourragere - it's not a standard British lanyard - are puzzling on top of this...

It is the standard British pattern OR's lanyard - looks to be one of the war-time khaki ones instead of the more common white ones.

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Hello all,

Lanyard being worn is of this type. These were available in differing shades of khaki. This is a lighter type.

post-7141-1268669184.jpg

Regards

Tocemma

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  • 2 years later...

I have unearthed another example of this strange phenomenon. I have darkened the photograph to make the lettering easier to see. I suspect that both of these men were members of an East Surrey Service battalion and that the letters were added to their caps before cap badges were issued.

post-6480-0-83034400-1343490948_thumb.jp

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high wood, if it was done before badges were issued, surely the letters would have been closer? Could it be that there is another letter behind the badge E * S? Regards Sean

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I wonder were East Surrey badges unavailable and E-S writen either side of a general service badge as a stop gap.john

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Is it just me, or can anyone else see some letters/numbers (possibly in brackets) to the left of the E in the first photo?

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