Jump to content
Free downloads from TNA ×
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

'Home Guard' uniform question


mithras

Recommended Posts

Hi all

I was wondering if anyone can tell me the rank of the chap in the photo (and anything else that might be of interest)

What information I have on him is that he was a doctor that was over-age at the start of the war (born in 1853) but joined up and was a medical/health inspector in London. There is no date associated with the photo. My assumption, based on the single string of braid on his cuff, is that he was a 2LT, but that seems an awfully junior rank for a qualified doctor.

A second question is can anyone make a suggestion as to where his records might be found (if they still exist)?

Many thanks

Will

post-58297-022744400 1283422927.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

His cap badge is that of the City of London Volunteer Regiment (Volunteer Training Corps) of which there were several variants. I am certain that I have a description of the VTC rank system, but cannot find it at present, but I will try and look it out over the weekend.

I think you will be lucky to find any records for him, but it may be worth checking the London Metropolitan Archives to see whether any local VTC records have survived there, or even check the Times Newspaper. You should be able to track his Medical career via the annual Medical Registers. It also worth checking to see whether he had any earlier Military Service via Army or Naval Lists, Harts Lists etc.

What is his name???

Sepoy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

His cap badge is that of the City of London Volunteer Regiment (Volunteer Training Corps) of which there were several variants. I am certain that I have a description of the VTC rank system, but cannot find it at present, but I will try and look it out over the weekend.

I think you will be lucky to find any records for him, but it may be worth checking the London Metropolitan Archives to see whether any local VTC records have survived there, or even check the Times Newspaper. You should be able to track his Medical career via the annual Medical Registers. It also worth checking to see whether he had any earlier Military Service via Army or Naval Lists, Harts Lists etc.

What is his name???

Sepoy

Thanks very much for that information. His name is Robert Felkin and I know he has no prior military career- though he was one of the early explorers of Central Africa in the days of his youth and was a proper Victorian gent, which is no doubt why he joined up to do his patriotic bit despite his age (61). However, one of his sons went on to have quite a distinguished career in RNAS/RAF Intelligence in both wars.

Will

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have just seen the Wikipedia entry for him and Robert seems to have been a very interesting guy. I have also seen his obituary in the Times published on 7th February, 1927 (do you have this?) and it states that Robert Felkin emmigrated to New Zealand for health reasons in 1916.This ties in with the period of exsistence of the VTC (1914 - 1916) when they became Volunteer Regiments aligned to County Regiments. After this date units tended to adopted the General Service "Royal Coat of Arms" Cap Badge.

Sepoy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Sepoy

Thanks again for the excellent information. Yep, quite and interesting and unusual chap indeed. He was caught in Germany when the war was declared and only just managed to escape detention. On his way home he apparently overheard to German officers discussing using Zeppelins to raid London and they were going to use a house of one of his patients as a landmark (Tower Cressy). On his return he duly reported the conversation to Kitchener. The truth of it may be indeterminable, but it makes a good tale.I am pretty sure I have the Time obit stashed somewhere, I'll have to have a look tomorrow to know for certain, however. The health reasons were primarily to do with the malaria he caught while in Africa and the place that he moved to in NZ, in Hawkes Bay, has a nice dry, warm climate which would have helped, I am sure. However, his wife often blamed his war service as the cause of the breakdown with his health.

Thanks to your lead, I have also managed to identify the rank as well (Platoon Commander), though it still seems a bit unusual that a doctor would be ranked as a subaltern- I thought they usually entered as a captain-equivelent (in his case, a Company Commander). I should be heading to England in March and there looks like there might be some material at the Imperial War Museum which might be able to shed some more light on the man (the VTC Gazette)

Cheers

Will

(who cropped the photo so to upload it to this board direct rather than store it on a third party server)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Following our recent exchange of messages, I have spent the weekend turning my Office upside down looking for the list of VTC rank insignia which I am certain that I have.

As ever, despite failing to discover the above mentioned list, I did redescovered several items which I had completely forgotten about. One of these was a copy the "National Guard in the Great War 1914 - 1918" by A E Manning Foster (printed 1920)

This is a history of the City of London Volunteers and apparently R W Felkin was a member of the Medical Staff and the Ambulance Section. Whereas a number of the guys listed in the book have brief biographical details, I cannot find one for Felkin.

If you would like to sent me your email address,via PM, I will be happy to send you a scan of the Ambulance Section chapter. (However, due to work commitments, It may take me a couple of days to sort this out)

Sepoy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...