Uniform - WWI or not?

[depaor01]

Afternoon all,

 

This chap is proving hard for a family to identify by name - it seems that the decade in which it was taken could help.

 

He is believed to be a Dublin Fusilier, but the shoulder pips tell me it could be post-WWI between 1918 and 1922. At the same time the high collar and cap suggests to me it's pre-WWI. It could also presumably be some sort of ceremonial uniform.

 

 

 

 

As you can see I'm confused.

 

Could somebody date the uniform?

 

Thanks in anticipation,

 

Dave

[wainfleet]

Impossible to be precise but it looks 1900-ish to me. Shoulder rank was in use at the time and even in WW1 was never entirely supplanted by cuff rank, which came in around 1902 (not sure exactly when - the first iteration of officers' Service Dress featured a very shortlived system of sleeve knots). In any case cuff rank was not used on the blue patrol jacket or anything other than khaki SD.

 

The shoulder rank system changed in 1901 from zero pips for a 2nd Lt, one for a Lt and two for a Captain to the present system which we all know.

 

 

[depaor01]

Thanks Wainfleet. Lots of new (to me) info there. So this chap is a captain having two pips and an unidentifiable squiggle on his epaulette?

 

Dave

[gordon92]

2 hours ago, depaor01 said:

Thanks Wainfleet. Lots of new (to me) info there. So this chap is a captain having two pips and an unidentifiable squiggle on his epaulette?

 

Dave

 

The unidentifiable squiggle appears to me to be an M below the pips.  This would make the subject a Militia officer thus dating the photo to before 1908.

[depaor01]

Much obliged chaps.

 

Dave

[FROGSMILE]

He is wearing blue patrol uniform with field service cap (FSC - in a special to RDF, garter blue) and I agree appears to be a militia battalion officer. The usual cap badge for the FSC when it was first reintroduced was a shoulder title of a grenade with D on left and F on right.

Edited 28 October , 2016 by FROGSMILE