Barry Williams Posted 25 June , 2004 Share Posted 25 June , 2004 Hi, St Saviours Church in Shotton Colliery Durham is celebrating its 150th anniversary this July. During WW1 Rev. Enos Fenton, the Vicar literally drove himself into the ground fund raising etc etc for the benefit of the many wounded soldiers and dependant families, so that by the time of his son’s death (Major Bede Liddell Fenton – 1st Dorsets) he was already exhausted and bordering on a nervous breakdown. Part of the celebrations is to display photographs of military weddings which were conducted by the Rev. Fenton, thus my request for help with the following photograph. If the regiment and the approximate year (or range of years) of the wedding service could be established from uniform details, then with information from the Absent Voter Records, Church monthly Roll of Honour and Marriage records there is a fair chance we could identify the soldier and bride. Close examination of the original photo suggests the collar badge consists of a horse mounted on a scroll, in front of the horse there is some type of lance etc topped with a triangular pennant The Overseas Stripes seem to be of the same colour. Apologies if I’ve rambled on a bit and thanks in anticipation. Barry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewThornton Posted 25 June , 2004 Share Posted 25 June , 2004 It looks like he may have been a member of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. The collar badges, black buttons and the square patch on his upper arms indicates that he was a member of the 1st Battalion - the Square Dinks. The 5th (Reserve) Battalion of the regiment was based at Brocton Camp on Cannock Chase from late 1917 until sometime in 1919. I will post a photo of a couple of Dinks (taken at Brocton) later on so that you can compare the collar badges and patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Williams Posted 25 June , 2004 Author Share Posted 25 June , 2004 Pretty exciting stuff Andrew, looking forwards to the scans. Cheers, Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raster Scanning Posted 26 June , 2004 Share Posted 26 June , 2004 Service stripes indicate the picture was taken after January 1918. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewThornton Posted 27 June , 2004 Share Posted 27 June , 2004 Here is a copy of the photo taken of two Dinks serving with the 5th (Reserve) Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade at Brocton. The chap on the left is a member of the 3rd Battalion (Black Triangle), while the soldier on the right is from the 2nd Battalion (not 1st as I mistakenly said in my earlier post). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Williams Posted 29 June , 2004 Author Share Posted 29 June , 2004 Hi Raster Scanning, Thanks for making me aware of the significance of the Oversaes Stripes, to be quite honest I assumed they were worn throughout the war. Andrew many thanks for the incredible scan and info. appreciated! ONE FURTHER QUESTION PLEASE During my limited military service, officer cadets wore white tape on their epaulettes similar to the soldier in the wedding photograph, would I be correct in assuming that he also was an officer cadet? Cheers and thank you. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewThornton Posted 29 June , 2004 Share Posted 29 June , 2004 It is quite possible that the soldier was an officer cadet. I must admit that the cloth loops under the shoulder titles had me puzzled for a bit, as some units (not the NZEF as far as I am aware) wore loops of cloth tape in various colours to denote their company. It is a shame that his headress is not in the photo, as officer cadets tended to have white bands around the crown as a further dress distinction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GavinH Posted 24 August , 2004 Share Posted 24 August , 2004 I believe I may have stumbled across a pretty amazing coincidence! I recently bought a group of 15 postcards on Ebay. I was very peased when they arrived, as they included some with interesting insignia etc. I was particularly pleased with two showing the same soldier of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. The first has "Your loving Cousin Clem S Johnson, France 21-1-18" written on the back. This shows him wearing a dark coloured diamond on his sleeve. The second also has "...your loving cousin Clem S Johnson" on the back, and is dated on the front 19/2/19. This shows an understandably smarter soldier, wearing a dark square battalion patch, sergeants stripes, and a wound stripe on his sleeve. I remembered reading this post recently, so looked it up to compare the insignia. Now this is the spooky bit. I'm fairly sure that the man on the right in Andrew Thornton's photo is also Clem S Johnson!!! What do you think? Is there any indication of his identity on your card Andrew? Gavin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GavinH Posted 24 August , 2004 Share Posted 24 August , 2004 card 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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