Shoulder tab ID

[thor432]

OK Guys and Gals

This is A pic of my granfather R Harris 5484 / 202034 Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry , 1/4th Battalion, His MIC shows him as a CPL and the entry in the SWB list shows He was a L/CPL, As you can see by the pic he is a SGT, Now my father told me that that he was wounded in the right arm sothe army put a pace stick under it and made him a drill sargent ? however I would like to know is, what is the tab on his right shoulder ?

Thanks

Dave

[tn.drummond]

Hi Dave,

1/4th Ox & Bucks L.I were in 145 Brigade, 48th (South Midland) Division (check out LLT for dates). The following is a quote about the said Div lifted from 'British Battle Insignia' by Mike Chappell and published by Osprey, which in turn is a quote from"Soldier from the Wars Returning" by Charles Carrington;

"...introduced coloured patches and worn on the collar or shoulder strap to identify units, or even companies within units, so that by the end of the war we were all considerably striped and spotted, another mark of the front line man" .

Your Grandfather would seem included in this description and it looks as if his brass shoulder title sit just below patch.

Hope this helps

Suddery

[thor432]

You may be right Suddery

This photo was taken long after he was wounded and out of the war,His MIC shows he was a Cpl, yet he has three stripes, I thought that he may have been an instructor, the tab showing that he was on the instruction staff untill he left the Army on the 13 jan 1919, but thats a wild guess

Thanks

Dave

[Mike_H]

Dave

The patches worn on the shoulder straps by units in 48th Division were company identifications, A company Blue, B Company Red, C Company Yellow, D Company Green.

Mike

[thor432]

Mike thats great info

Now I would say that the one on my grandfathers shoulder is Yellow, C Company, now that I know this I can go on and find what that Company did in the War Diary.

Thanks again

Dave

[Andrew Upton]

The patches worn on the shoulder straps by units in 48th Division were company identifications, A company Blue, B Company Red, C Company Yellow, D Company Green.

...Now I would say that the one on my grandfathers shoulder is Yellow, C Company, now that I know this I can go on and find what that Company did in the War Diary....

Except that orthochromatic film as usually used at the time has a tendancy to make certain light colours dark and other dark colours light. Yellow usually comes out particularly dark. In contrast blue usually comes out very light (eg his blue Overseas Service chevrons on his lower right sleeve).

[wainfleet]

You said he was back home, in which case he won't be wearing the 48th Division scheme. Those tabs must therefore be something else, probably to do with his role in the UK. Without extra information they are highly unlikely to be identifiable.

[FROGSMILE]

You may be right Suddery

This photo was taken long after he was wounded and out of the war,His MIC shows he was a Cpl, yet he has three stripes, I thought that he may have been an instructor, the tab showing that he was on the instruction staff untill he left the Army on the 13 jan 1919, but thats a wild guess

Thanks

Dave

He is perhaps a Lance Sergeant. If so he would have worn 3 stripes, but much of his personal documentation would have shown his substantive rank of Corporal until such time as he was promoted.