Service Dress drab material: two official versions?: help needed.

[Muerrisch]

22 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

I think you might enjoy watching this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zObH9QWUew8&pp=ygUSb3BlcmF0aW9uIGluc2FuaXR5

 

Thank you.

That was one bright light in a ghastly episode, with certain 'allies' disgracing themselves. I had a couple of my lads embedded in ARRC HQ as RAF-uniformed weather forecasters. When they came back to me and a long well-earned leave they had some dreadful tales to tell.

[Muerrisch]

4 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

Like me, I think you will be quite intrigued to see this Cameronian’s [R]QMS, who seems to reflect some of the confusion regarding what service dress uniform infantry warrant officers and first class staff sergeants should wear.

Notice again the single line of herringbone tape appearing on the edge of the cuff as per another example noted earlier.  I think that the photo dates to very early in the war given the badge of rank and appointment, marking that the individual concerned was still of staff sergeant grade.  He seems to have the two SA ribbons and so if that’s correct to have been 2nd Battalion.  Presumably he became a warrant officer class II in 1915 and would’ve changed his badge to a plain crown hitherto worn by the sergeant major of battalion.

Yes, intrigued on all sorts of levels. That darned cuff adornment deserves a thread on its own. I seem to remember seeing it also on blue patrols, again Scottish. However not solely Scots, as witness the famous shot of an SM inspecting a sorry squad of mere lads.

If the sword is in the leather active service scabbard[not sure] , I think the belt is wrong. Should be belt, waist, brown, warrant officers and staff, 1905? His puttees are virtually immaculate. A class act.

[FROGSMILE]

26 minutes ago, Muerrisch said:

Yes, intrigued on all sorts of levels. That darned cuff adornment deserves a thread on its own. I seem to remember seeing it also on blue patrols, again Scottish. However not solely Scots, as witness the famous shot of an SM inspecting a sorry squad of mere lads.

If the sword is in the leather active service scabbard[not sure] , I think the belt is wrong. Should be belt, waist, brown, warrant officers and staff, 1905? His puttees are virtually immaculate. A class act.

The cuff is the usual gauntlet type, but of course without officer rank badges, and the line of herringbone tape dressing the edge.  The belt again the usual type with carriage (twin straps), but he’s swapped the Union clasp for a regimental plate.  It’s exactly what I’d expect for a regular battalion just before the war.  I believe that the SD of the type he wears was seen as the “first quality” equivalent in SD cloth to the previous scarlet, or rifle green undress, that the first class staff (and those dressed as) plus warrant officers (SM and BM) had been used to.

Incidentally, I was just this afternoon looking at the Indian Clothing Regulations for the period between Boer War and 1914 and there’s specific mention of an quarterly cash allowance for uniforms and express instructions for unit tailors to make up “clothing” (left quite open ended) for those entitled to “first quality”.  It also mentions specifically “blue patrol” uniform for the “unattached list” other ranks of warrant and staff sergeant grade. 

Edited 12 March by FROGSMILE

[Muerrisch]

This one

[FROGSMILE]

8 minutes ago, Muerrisch said:

This one

Yes I posted that one very early in the [edit] other thread (that stimulated this one) if I recall correctly, along with all the other illustrations.

Edited 12 March by FROGSMILE

[Muerrisch]

11 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Yes I posted that one very early in the [edit] other thread (that stimulated this one) if I recall correctly, along with all the other illustrations.

I seem to have missed it. Anyway, not a Scottish regiment by the look of him.

[FROGSMILE]

Just now, Muerrisch said:

I seem to have missed it. Anyway, not a Scottish regiment by the look of him.

I’ll try to find it as it was one of the significant features that began the discussion.  Not Scottish but until the Cameronian QMS the only one I’d seen with the row of herringbone cuff tape.

[FROGSMILE]

On 12/03/2024 at 19:40, Muerrisch said:

I seem to have missed it. Anyway, not a Scottish regiment by the look of him.

It was in the 12th November thread that you commented upon initially, in order to start this one: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/307499-one-for-muerrisch/#comment-3247987

Here also are some more examples.  Notice that collar badges were not common initially.

 

Edited 18 March by FROGSMILE