Chevrons and Star

[Martyn Gibson]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to reply back to me and for the valuable information. Much appreciated.

 

I will now trawl through pictures of my wife's grandfather to see if I can find any picture of him in uniform which shows his left arm for possible marksman badge.

 

Kind regards

 

Martyn

[Muerrisch]

Martyn it would also be valuable if other, earlier, photos show him in uniform without the star. I could deduce something from that

[Martyn Gibson]

 

 

 

That is all I can find.

[FROGSMILE]

They are super photos Martyn and of course precede his time as a Corporal.  In the first photo he’s a young Sapper (his special RE rank) not long after enlistment I should think.  In that photo there appears to be a blemish on the photo of his right arm, I don’t think it’s a distance judging star.  In the second photo he has the single stripe of a Second Corporal, which unlike the infantry and cavalry Lance Corporal was a substantive rank rather than a generally unpaid appointment (although there were exceptions).  Only the RE and the Army Ordnance Corps utilised the substantive rank of Second Corporal and it reflected their requirement for more steps in rank within a more technical organisation.  In that latter photo you can see that he is wearing the special shoulder title of the London Division Field Company RE.  He seems to have removed the letter T as many units did after the introduction of conscription.

Edited 17 January , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[aodhdubh]

I've obviously come here searching for the same information. Looking at pre-First World War photos of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, the senior NCOs sport many rhombuses and five-pointed stars. I have found no contemporary information from websearches. One or two results do indicate the horizontal rhombus is used today by cadet forces as an efficiency badge, though not specifying precisely what it signifies. The two snips here are from photographs of the BVRC contingent to the 1911 Coronation in London.

[squirrel]

Rifle volunteers uniform - Lozenge is for a years efficient service - five point star for five years eficent service so your man has sixteen years efficient service.

Has another badge above his Serjeant's chevrons - difficult to determine what it is.

Marksman's badge on left sleeve.

[FROGSMILE]

Squirrel is quite correct except that there was a revision by the time of WW1 that each ‘efficiency star’ was awarded for 4-years efficient attendance at annual training camp, instead of the previous criterion, 5-years.

NB.  The badge above his chevrons is a large format worsted crown of rifle brigade pattern (green on black).

 

Edited 25 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE