Footwear and belts - RGA

[MrEd]

Hello all,

these 3 photos show the same soldier in the RGA - my Great Uncle, Tom Brown and the photos were taken in Italy in 1918. He was 176th siege battery.

In the left of the photo, he is wearing a soft service dress cap, 1905 pattern jacket, bandolier (I presume 50 round), SD trousers and puttees. In the right of the photo he is wearing the same except for he appears to have boots on that come up quite high instead of puttees. Are they trench boots like these but without the 3 buckle upper leather flap (either missing or not done up?)

What are these boots and also why do the majority of the men just have the bandolier and no belts? We’re belts not generally worn by the RA? I have seen a few photos in books where belts are absent. Some of the men do have belts on and they appear to be the standard buckle 1903 leather belt or maybe the 1908 web belt (but I can’t tell due to the low clarity of the b+w images)

not very interesting in the scheme of things, but I just got curious!

 

thanks

ed

 

p.s many thanks to Paul (@ororkep) who sent me the second photo.

Edited 13 January by MrEd