French WW1 officer uniform

[PFSDublin]

Can anyone help me to identify the uniform that the officer in the attached photo is wearing? Photo taken circa 1915. I am told he saw service with either the French artillery or a Chasseur a Pied (light infantry). Not familiar with French WW1 uniforms, so any help appreciated.

[cmf]

Hi PFSDublin,

 

The officer in the photograph is a Sous-lieutenant (Second Lieutenant) of the Belgian Army, not the French. The 1915 date you indicate matches the uniform details we see in the photo, as I’ll expand upon below.

 

This subaltern wears the nine-button officers’ M1914 piped field tunic (introduced on 2^nd May 1914, in dark-blue for officers of all arms-of-service except those of the General Staff, Chasseurs-à-pied, Carabiniers, and Guides, who wore dark-green), and M1911/1913 officers’ trousers, both being worn here as an Undress uniform. His rank is indicated by the single, gilt, six-pointed star on each collar, and by the arrangement of gold-lace on the Képi M1859/1910, the usual Undress headdress for officers (here we see two rings of gold-lace around the band of the képi, indicating Company Officer grade; and, just about visible, the single gold-lace vertical quarter-stripe on each side of the crown, indicating Sous-lieutenant).

 

Unfortunately, this officer’s arm-of-service insignia, displayed on the stiff piped shoulder-boards of the M1914 field tunic, is obscured in the photograph. However, we can, through elimination, determine a range of likely options for the arm-of-of service to which this 2^nd Lieutenant belongs. Undress trousers, with piping and double-stripe, as worn in this photograph, were regulation for officers of the Line Infantry, Chasseurs-à-pied, Carabiniers, Guides, Lancers, and Chasseurs-à-cheval. The colour of the trousers was either ‘Belgian blue-grey’ (worn by Line Infantry, Lancers, and Chasseurs-à-cheval), ‘Belgian grey’ (dark-grey: worn by Chasseurs-à-pied and Carabiniers), or ‘amaranth’ (rose-red: worn by the Guides). Now, given the orthochrome photography of the period, both ‘amaranth’, and certainly ‘Belgian grey’, should appear a darker shade than the trousers worn by the officer in this photograph. This leaves us with blue-grey, indicating the Line Infantry, Lancers, or Chasseurs-à-cheval.

 

In determining between the three, we unfortunately encounter difficulties. Whereas the Line Infantry had dark-blue trouser stripes and piping, the Lancers and Chasseurs-à-cheval had royal-blue, which does not help us in a black and white photograph!

 

Moreover, the dark shade of piping on this officer’s tunic is also problematical in terms of identifying his branch: by 1914, the facings of the Line Infantry was grey-blue (which in period photographs can appear very light), that of the Lancers differed regimentally (either crimson, white or blue), as did that of the Chasseurs-à-cheval (yellow or scarlet). Crimson, blue, yellow and scarlet can all appear as a dark shade on period photos.

 

From the discussion above, and turning to the information you’ve been told about this officer (and assuming it refers to service in the Belgian Army), we’ve established this photograph does not show an artillery officer, and also determined a range of possible options. However, if we take a step back, and allow for a broader range of shades that might constitute ‘Belgian Grey’, and also take into account the flux in which Belgian Army uniform was subject to immediately prior to, and of course during, the Great War, then the possibility does exist that he might be an officer of the Chasseurs-à-pied: if so, his képi, tunic, tunic piping, and trouser piping and stripes would be dark-green.      

 

Chris

Edited 15 December , 2019 by cmf

[FROGSMILE]

So many of the Belgian uniforms at the following links seem to show double breasted jackets for the period 1914, but I’m unsure if they perhaps relate to the period just before the 9-button tunic mentioned above:  

 

1. http://www.arquebusiers.be/armee-belge-photos.htm
 

2.  http://www.arquebusiers.be/armee-belge-photos-2.htm

Edited 16 December , 2019 by FROGSMILE

[cmf]

Hi Frogsmile,

 

Field Service Dress for officers of the Belgian Army in the years prior to WW1, and into 1915, was very much up to the individual. If we take the Line Infantry as an example, up until 1913 there was the option of the officers' dark-blue double-breasted piped M1871 Tunic, normally reserved for Full Dress, or the dark-blue unpiped M1892 Field Jacket, normally worn for Undress, which depending on the whim of the officer and his tailor, could be single or double breasted, having varying numbers of buttons (sometime fly-fronted), patch or slash breast pockets, and slash side pockets (in its single breasted form, the jacket could often resemble the dark-blue Universal Serge Frock, often worn by British Army officers of the time when off-duty). Neither the M1871 nor M1892 were fitted with shoulder straps or shoulder boards, although fringed epaulettes were worn in Full Dress on the M1871. Rank insignia was worn on the collar.

 

In 1913 a new dark-blue, nine-button, piped, single-breasted tunic was adopted for both Full and Field Dress, with Brandenburg cuffs, which displayed rank in the form of cuff rings. Stiff shoulder boards were worn, bearing the Royal Cypher. The tunic had no breast pockets, and slash side pockets without flaps, although breast pockets could be added for Field Service. In 1914, although retained for Full Dress, the M1913 Tunic was withdrawn for Field Service, and replaced for that function by the dark-blue M1914 Field Tunic, as already described. This plethora of new regulations, and the fact that officers procured their own uniforms, meant that at the outbreak of war in 1914 all types of uniform were worn in the field, M1871, M1892, M1913, and M1914, with the added variety of many officers having updated their M1871 Tunics or M1892 Field Jackets to match the features and insignia of the M1913 or M1914 tunics!

 

Chris

Edited 7 March , 2020 by cmf

[FROGSMILE]

Thank you Chris, that’s very interesting.  I had been scouring for WW1 Belgian Army photos and found the range of uniforms quite confusing, but you have explained it very clearly now.

[cmf]

Thanks Frogsmile . . . and that was just for Line Infantry! :-)

[PFSDublin]

Many thanks to everyone for all the help, and in particular to Chris for your detailed confirmation that the officer in the photograph is Belgian rather than French. This has allowed me, through the Red Cross POW records, to identify him as Lieutenant Louis Moors of the Belgian 2nd Regiment Chasseurs a Pied, who was taken prisoner of war prior to 6th January 1915 (the earliest date on his POW records) and subsequently held at Halle and Weilburg P.O.W. camps. Since he is wearing the uniform of a Second-Lieutenant in the photograph it was presumably taken prior to his promotion to Lieutenant and subsequent capture.

 

Identifying Lieutenant Moors is part of a much larger project. I am in the process of cataloguing a collection of approximately 100 photographs, paintings and sketches collected during WWI by an Irish Royal Flying Corps pilot who was taken POW in 1915. The photographs in the collection appear to have been taken with a camera that the Irish pilot was carrying on his person when he was captured. The paintings and sketches were presents from other prisoners that he met in the various camps that he was held in during WWI. I have now managed to identify all of the officers in the signed photographs. As for the paintings and sketches, there is only only one drawing remaining where I have  been unable of discover the identity of the officer who drew it. The sketch in question is a cartoon of a German pilot who has just been shot down and is hurtling towards the ground in his stricken fighter. The caption to the cartoon appears to contain a reference to the "loop the loop" technique developed by the German fighter ace Max Immelmann, now known as the Immelmann Turn. The cartoon is dated Weilburg March 1916 and the signature appears to read R. Dareutz, R. Daructz or something similar. Not sure whether he was Belgian or French. I believe that in 1915 there were just 12 British junior officers, 20 French Junior officers, 4 Belgian Generals and 150 Russian junior officers in Weilburg POW camp. I have already tried the French National Army Museum in Paris, but they do not have any WWI POW records for Weilburg. I have also spent several hours going through the Red Cross WWI POW archives trying to identify the officer, but have been unable to identify a likely French or Belgian candidate.

 

A scan of the cartoon is attached. Question is - can anyone identify the officer who drew it or suggest likely research routes ?

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

It looks like ‘ R Fareux’ to me (bottom right signature).

Edited 17 December , 2019 by FROGSMILE

[PFSDublin]

Dear Frogsmile, I have checked the Red Cross arrive and unfortunately there is no Belgian/French WWI prisoner recorded by the name "R" Fareuux, although there are a couple of men listed with that surname (but different initial). Thanks for the suggestion. I will keep trying.