Regimental ribbon

[John Holmes]

Hi,

I was told the R.M.L.I. battalions wore a piece of regimental ribbon on the arm of the tunic as an identification patch. But can anybody help as to which way the two battalions wore it from 1916 in the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division?

Regards.

John

[michaeldr]

can anybody help as to which way the two battalions wore it from 1916 in the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division?

John,

This is not the answer to your question, but it may be a clue [and hopefully not just a red herring]

I cannot confirm the patches for the Marine Battalions, however the 63rd (RN) Division’s Naval Battalions did use this system and the following may be of interest.

Mr Martin J. Brayley’s article in Len Sellers’ journal ‘RND’ Issue No.7, Dec. 1998 suggests that these dates not from 1916 but from late 1917 when “…a system of battle patches was adopted for the battalions. Hawke wore a stylised black cloth version of their cap badge; Hood, a horizontal light blue rectangle with a dark blue central stripe; Anson, a horizontal rectangle with the upper half of dark blue over light blue; Drake, a vertical rendition of the Anson badge. A square patch in company colours was worn below the battalion patch.”

The illustration below is from Mr Brayley’s article

The top patch is for the Battalion, in this case the Drake

The Red Square indicates ‘A’ Company [blue = B Yellow = C & Green = D]

The Fouled Anchor indicates the rank of Leading Rating

Sorry that I cannot be of more help

Michael D.R.

[John Holmes]

Michael

thankyou very much for the naval battalions patches information and the company colours that was new to me.

Regards

John