Cap badges far from home; & possible uniform component… metal detecting finds

[highland]

Hello old friends – it’s been a while but hoping you can solve some puzzling metal detecting finds…. from here on our croft in Sutherland.

Firstly, found 2 cap badges a few metres apart - Canadian 4^th Pioneers Bn and Northumberland Fusiliers. I can’t find any family or local connection to these regiments.

Anyone have any idea how these badges might have ended up here?

Grandfather-in-law’s war record shows he came back from France for harvest leave on the croft – would he have brought help? Would they have been wearing uniform for agricultural work on leave anyway? Odd that they aren’t the usual Scottish regiments or regiments in our family records (Cameron Highlanders, Royal Highlanders etc.)...was there any swapping of badges between soldiers at points during the war? The Canadian Forest Corps were here but they had their own cap badge; a possible connection though.

Those are my best guesses but looking forward to some more informed suggestions.

Secondly here are 3 photos of another nearby find – not as heavy duty as my usual agricultural finds and you can see where there was a fixing on the back – just in case it looks familiar to anyone on here as some sort of buckle / badge / uniform component, but it may not be this at all!

With many thanks.

[HERITAGE PLUS]

The roped edging could suggest something Naval.

[highland]

Ah of course - thanks for that, will have a look online...might post on the general forum re agricultural leave, I can't find out much about how it worked for those going home to their own farms.

[Jerry B]

a lot of soldiers seem to have swapped badges with soldiers from other regiments and even countries so he could have brought them home with him. 

 

Any maneuvers ever carried out in the area, or army camps, forced marches etc?

[highland]

Hello - thank you, that's interesting re swapped badges - I wondered about that; these were found in a field but good to have that confirmed, I might find some more yet...

 

Have been asking about agricultural leave in general on the general forum, am wondering now if the major port at Invergordon, which is near us, might have been a source of agricultural labour as the war went on. From that discussion - went to look at my records again, it was indeed only in 1916 that Grandfather got back to do his own ploughing etc. So maybe 1917 onwards they had labour sourced from recuperating soldiers coming back into that port? (There was also a camp at Nigg, not too far away, and a Canadian forestry corps even nearer to us.)

 

I just found it strange that having other soldiers here for harvest etc. hasn't come up in conversation before as there are good memories / information from many round here on both wars - however, I will ask around about this specifically and see if anyone has any clues.

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

On 15/04/2020 at 10:23, highland said:

Hello - thank you, that's interesting re swapped badges - I wondered about that; these were found in a field but good to have that confirmed, I might find some more yet...

 

Have been asking about agricultural leave in general on the general forum, am wondering now if the major port at Invergordon, which is near us, might have been a source of agricultural labour as the war went on. From that discussion - went to look at my records again, it was indeed only in 1916 that Grandfather got back to do his own ploughing etc. So maybe 1917 onwards they had labour sourced from recuperating soldiers coming back into that port? (There was also a camp at Nigg, not too far away, and a Canadian forestry corps even nearer to us.)

 

I just found it strange that having other soldiers here for harvest etc. hasn't come up in conversation before as there are good memories / information from many round here on both wars - however, I will ask around about this specifically and see if anyone has any clues.

 

 

 

The issue service dress trousers of WW1 were very high waisted and issued along with canvas suspender-braces that had no elastication (rubber was both expensive and preserved for higher priority uses), so there was no 'give' in them whatsoever.  Men engaged in hard physical labour in uniform tended to shrug them off their shoulders and rely instead on a stout, broad waist belt, often with a pocket for loose change, or whatever the user found useful.  As well as leather, many such belts were canvas and it became popular to collect badges and shoulder titles and mount them on the belt.  Whilst working badges were no doubt sometimes dislodged and lost.  It occurred to me that that might be the source of your badges.  

Edited 16 April , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[highland]

Hello - this is great information, that has added so much to my picture of what was probably going on in the field outside my window. What detail you guys have at your fingertips. really brings names on pages to life - thank you indeed.

[mark holden]

You can see a surviving example of one of the waistbelts FROGSMILE refers to in his reply  in this thread at the bottom of page 2.

 

 

[highland]

Goodness, thanks for that - amazing to see!

[Foresterab]

I did check the one reference I have on forestry and farming on the western front re Canadian forestry corps.  Unfortunately the pictures I saw showed many pictures of casual dress or tunic less operations.   Of interest there was one RE picture which showed a tractor operator wearing badges for both his Royal Engineers unit and his previous unit on a leather waist belt.  Not sure if they would have been common practice to do so or just someone caught in working uniform C.D. formal dress.  
 

 

most of the Canadian forestry Corp photos were from France in the the book but did run into multiple refences to Scotland.   Still remember one Nov 11 class in forestry school where the lesson was introduced as a field exercise...at the cemetery across the road and the history of the forestry corps (mostly ww2) was laid out on the many headstones in front of us.  They were well tended after that somber lesson 

[FROGSMILE]

19 hours ago, highland said:

Goodness, thanks for that - amazing to see!

Although the scenario posited is quite feasible do bear in mind that the badges might simply have been souvenirs lost by a soldier on leave in your local area, and not necessarily by a Canadian forester.

[highland]

Thanks both - I think the most likely answer is that there were soldiers doing agricultural work here, but I've a few local organisations to speak to before I get any confirmation of that. The Canadian foresters were very near to here, so it's feasible that they might have lent a hand at points, even unofficially. I've filled out my general picture of soldiers, and what might have gone on here a bit more from this thread so that's great - even being prompted to look again at my records and realising that Grandfather did come back for Ag leave, but only during his first year - that's also added to the picture. Hopefully I will find some local knowledge on possible agricultural help, I may be back with more questions!