Royal West Surrey regiment

[Guest waterloo]

I have recently dicovered to photographs of my grandfather, 0ne taken some time before the Great War and one, i believe during the War , he is wearing, what i think are service stipes....Can anyone confirm this for me? and what they signify.

PS.....can anyone confirm the date the Royal West Surry Regiment (Queen's Reg't.) would have been in Gibrator, as the first o the two photographs was taken there.

Cheers

Waterloo

[Hambo]

Hello Waterloo

Welcome to the forum

Yes the 2nd Battalion embarked for Gibraltar on New Year's Day 1910 on the "Braemar Castle" and occupied Buena Vista barracks with detachments at North Front and Windmill Hill.

They were there until the 3rd of January 1912 when they moved on to Bermuda where they stayed until the 21st of January 1914 when the moved to South Africa.

They were on manoeuvers in August, which were cut short on news of the outbreak of the war in Europe. They arrived back in Southampton on the 19th of September.

The first group of them embarked for France on the 4th of October.

I'm no good on the stripes I'm afraid but no doubt one of the pals will have the answer to that one

Hope it helps Hambo

Source. The Royal West Surreys in the Great War

[GavinH]

Its interesting to see that the photo has been coloured, but that the artist has shown the tunic as blue instead of scarlet. Perhaps he run out of red paint! The 'stripes' that appear on both cuffs are actually the braid surrounding the blue cuffs, and have no significance. The single stripe on the left sleeve is a long service good conduct chevron. I think one stripe indicates two years service, without any misdemeanours. The crossed rifles above are a marksman badge.

Regards

Gavin