Suffolk regiment flash

[high wood]

This Suffolk regiment soldier is wearing a brigade or divisional patch. Can anyone identify it please? By the the look of the uniform that the man is wearing he may have served with the 1st battalion.

[high wood]

Full picture.

[Chief_Chum]

This Suffolk regiment soldier is wearing a brigade or divisional patch. Can anyone identify it please? By the the look of the uniform that the man is wearing he may have served with the 1st battalion.

Lovely photo High Wood. Any idea who he is?

There were three battalions of the Suffolk Regiment who wore khaki drill in The Great War; 1st Battalion in Salonika and the 1/5th (Territorial) and 15th (Yeomanry) Battalions in Palestine.

It's not actually a Brigade or a Divisional Flash, it's a Battalion one.

Your photo shows a soldier of the 1/5th as their Battalion patch was the red and yellow rectangle (see below).

However, it is very interesting to see that he is wearing his puttees bound top-to-bottom instead of the infantry bottom-to-top. This was a distinction of the 15th Battalion to commemorate their former mounted status. I have a photograph of my Grandfather in France in 1918, serving with the 15th Battalion, with his puttees bound top-to-bottom. Maybe your photograph shows a former member of the 15th, now serving with the 1/5th. Alternatively he could be a member of the Transport Section although they usually seem to keep their breeches when wearing KD.

Nice image.

Cheers,

Taff

[high wood]

Taff,

thank you for your comprehensive reply. Sadly there is nothing on the post card to identify the soldier. I agree that it is a superb photograph and the man looks to be a real character. He reminds me of a young Jimmy Edwards.

Do you have any idea as to when the flash was introduced? I am guessing that the photograph is post Gallipoli and probably taken in Egypt.

Simon.

[Chief_Chum]

Hi Simon,

I believe that the whole 54th Division scheme was introduced in Palestine. None of the reference I have found so far shows cloth insignia being worn by the 1/5th during the Gallipoli campaign although the Suffolk Yeomanry (later 15/Suffolk) do seem to have their battalion patches on Wolseley helmets later in the campaign. I have quite a few portrait postcards showing the 1/5th patch being worn on khaki drill - and a few on serge service dress in 1918/19 usually taken in Egypt at the end of hostilities.

Taff