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Remembered Today:

Uniform and cap badge 'LVR'


IvorPerry

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I have a black and white photo of a soldier, seated, in WW1 uniform. He is wearing a cap with a dark band and his epaulettes are also dark. The cap badge is circular (probably a wreath), open at the top, with large capital letters LVR inside. There may be an animal figure ?fox? above the letters, but I may be mistaken. His shoulder title is clearly LVR.

On both cuffs he has a band of narrow braid or piping which seems to be of two colours - a darkish (darker than khaki) background with white or pale 'x's that almost touch each other all the way round.

On his right sleeve above the cuff he has some sort of insignia - it looks as though it might be a dark square with something shiny oversewn on it.

The cap looks a little too tall and well made for most infantry regiments, though the officer is not wearing an officer's jacket.

Sorry not to upload the photo - I'm having difficulty making it less than 250Kb.

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IvorPerry, if you would like to email me the photo at chrisjmcdonald (atsign) comcast dot net I will see if I can resize it for you. Detailed as your description is there are too many variables and possibilities...

Chris

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I have a black and white photo of a soldier, seated, in WW1 uniform. He is wearing a cap with a dark band and his epaulettes are also dark. The cap badge is circular (probably a wreath), open at the top, with large capital letters LVR inside. There may be an animal figure ?fox? above the letters, but I may be mistaken. His shoulder title is clearly LVR. On both cuffs he has a band of narrow braid or piping which seems to be of two colours - a darkish (darker than khaki) background with white or pale 'x's that almost touch each other all the way round. On his right sleeve above the cuff he has some sort of insignia - it looks as though it might be a dark square with something shiny oversewn on it. The cap looks a little too tall and well made for most infantry regiments, though the officer is not wearing an officer's jacket. Sorry not to upload the photo - I'm having difficulty making it less than 250Kb.

It sounds like the London Volunteer Regiment (one of many units of the Volunteer Training Corps - WW1's Home Guard) and the 'fox' is a Lion. The braid that you mention sounds like the adopted cuff ranking system that was unique to the VTC.

post-599-0-36382000-1415480499_thumb.jpg

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LVR and a fox sounds like Leicestershire Volunteer Regt, a Great War Volunteer unit.

Rob

The Leicestershire Volunteer Regt were also a VTC unit and a very great many Counties, Cities, Towns and Boroughs formed VTC units with associated titles. There must be rather a lot that the acronym LVR would fit for (e.g. Lancashire, Liverpool). I am not sure about the fox, as we have not seen the OP's photo, but I do know that the London Volunteer Regiment used the letters LVR in their actual insignia. After Aug 1916 the War Office at last followed a logical path (better late than never) and brought the VTC units within the British Army's Territorialisation Regimental system and made the units Volunteer Battalions of their local regular regiment.

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Frogsmile, how did the VTC wear the rank on the uniform? In same place as the army rank as the NCO badges look a bit odd as a rank badge(if you get my drift)

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Frogsmile, how did the VTC wear the rank on the uniform? In same place as the army rank as the NCO badges look a bit odd as a rank badge(if you get my drift)

On the lower sleeve rather like Royal Navy and RAF officer ranking.

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Thank you makes sense.

You will understand that it was a lot cheaper that way. The only publicly funded item of uniform was a red arm band with the letters GR (George Rex), which wags quickly dubbed George's Wrecks or Gorgeous Rejects. After 1916 they were issued with chevrons, etc. like the rest of the Army. Until 1916 the volunteers had to purchase their own uniforms, which were in a superior style and quality (reflecting the middle class dominance) and a rather natty grey-green colour.

post-599-0-19185800-1415490219_thumb.jpg

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Yes even more sense. Do remind me of the Canadian cadet force "ketchup" rank system(these all worn on the shoulder) where they are easy to produce and one place for officer and NCO is sensible.

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