Somerset Light Infantry Bomber's Badge

[PCTooke]

I am researching a private who at the time of his wedding in September 1916 was in the Somerset Light Infantry. His specialist skill at arms was bomber. Whilst the image is not terribly clear, his wedding photo (attached) appears to show the bomber's badge of a flaming grenade on the upper LEFT arm of his tunic. However, Army Order 403/1915 specified that the  Infantry Bombers badge was to be a Skill at Arms badge worn on the upper RIGHT arm. Can anyone help with this, please? Did the SLI wear their skill at arms badges other than laid down in the Order? Did individual soldiers or their senior officers exercise a more relaxed attitude to such Orders? 

Peter

 

 

WEDDING PHOTO.pdf

[EastSurrey]

I have a 1917 photo of my great uncle, a private in the 9th East Surrey. He is wearing his bomber's badge on his left upper arm, below his unit identification badges (24th Division.) His right arm can't be clearly seen.

In a 1915 or 1916 photo he is clearly wearing a brass(?) flaming grenade on both upper arms!

Michael

[FROGSMILE]

This question has been asked a few times before.  The short answer is that some units followed the regulations correctly and others did not.  Unlike other badges used by the army for generations, and so with placing well established, this was a wartime badge and some confusion existed in an army growing at a prodigious rate and with other priorities beyond the correct placing of SAA badges.

Edited 5 October , 2018 by FROGSMILE

[PCTooke]

Thanks, Michael & Frogsmile. I thought the answer might be something like that but it's good to have one's ideas corroborated.

Peter

[Lammy]

It could also be the image has been developed in reverse.!