Border Regiment?

[james driver]

Sorry, another poor photograph. Does anyone think the cap badge - probably taken late 1914 or early ‘15 - might/could be the Border Regiment? Any other suggestions gratefully received.

[Polar Bear]

You might get more traction on this in the 'Uniforms, cap badges and insignia' forum and so (it's up to you of course) politely ask a moderator if they can move it to there.

 

As to your specific question I can see at least half a dozen alternatives for as you say it is a poor quality photo. As to Border Regiment... unconvinced... but willing to be corrected.

 

P

[Michelle Young]

Moved to Uniform subsection. My first thought was RE but I'm not sure, possibly Dorset/Essex/Northants but one of the men looks to have black buttons.........

[mark holden]

I think RE is a good contender but not a certainty. The buttons appear to be the pressed leather type.

 

regards

 

Mark

[mancpal]

Spoiler

 

I think the buttons are different on each tunic, certainly the number are.

I tend to think RE and is it my imagination or are they wearing jodhpurs? This may be a trick of the light but are spurs visible on the soldier on the left (front bit of spurs)?

 

Simon

[james driver]

Hi everybody, many thanks for all your contributions to this topic. If, as seems likely, they are RE badges then it seems to solve a mystery!

 

The soldier on the right is Sapper Frank Driver. He was my grandfather’s brother. (My grandfather, Arthur Driver, DSO, MC, rose from a private in 1914 to command the 9th Bttn. Duke of Wellington’s Regt in 1918). Both were born and lived in Silsden in Yorkshire.

 

There is a family story that Frank and Arthur’s sister, Sally, was engaged to another Silsden resident who was killed in the war.
 

In the same photo album where this picture appears, there are some photographs of horse lines (I posted one of these a couple of days ago) with soldiers wearing tropical kit. None of the Driver brothers served outside of France, so it’s always been assumed that the fiancé sent these pictures back to Sally, but never returned himself.

 

Anyone researching soldiers from the Silsden area of Yorkshire has the huge bonus of being able to use the incredible ‘Craven’s Part in The Great War’ website - worth a look even if your researches are based elsewhere.

 

Cross-referencing the casualties listed on the Silsden war memorial with the service histories on the CPGW website it seems likely that the Sapper on the left is Driver Ormond Clarkson who was accidentally drowned while serving in Mesopotamia - probably at modern day Samarra. It seems likely that he was Sally’s fiancé and the sender of the photographs.

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

I too think that they are both RE.  The soldier on the left has leather guards on his lower shin that were part of the spurs worn by a driver.  Drivers RE were common in bridging train units, engineer parks, and signals service line laying units.

[Andrew Upton]

15 hours ago, mancpal said:

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I think the buttons are different on each tunic, certainly the number are.

 

There is no difference, the man on the viewers left just has his collar further down, over the top-most button...