General Service Button or Regimental Buttons

[dunmore44]

Did 1st World War uniforms have General Service Buttons or Regimental Buttons, or did it depend on the unit or date of enlistment?

Also on the kharki SD hat were the chin strap buttons a small General Service Button or a Regimental Button

[DrB]

Most of my sources state that the GS button replaced the regimental one during the Cardwell reforms for the OR's dress tunics, service dress and their progeny.

The officers, having to pay for their uniforms, bought and wore regimental ones. Regimental buttons were not reissued to the OR's until the 1920's I believe. (Could be wrong on that call)

I would assume some units ignored that dictate and wore regimental ones. The terriers, foot and mounted, would wear regimental ones I assume, until lost buttons would be replaced by GS ones.

(Apparently, regimental buttons were not high on the priority list for QM's)

As for all uniform items, what the War Office dictated and what was worn often differed, from ancient times until today. Lord knows I saw some interesting variations in "grunt gear" when I was in Southeast Asia. Those uniforms certainly did not step from the pages of Osprey.

One must remember, "uniform" under service conditions, was anything but.

DrB