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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Unidentified patch


Bill Alexander

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I have had a pair of these patches for years and they to date have defied identification. I believe them to be associated with the CEF, as they came in a box of WW1 CEF badges. If you know the patch or have ideas I would welcome them.

CEFUNIDENTIFIEDPATCHMAPLELEAFONYELLOWCIR

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Hi Bill.

Could not find a pattern like the one you described for WW1 But I did find this pattern for WW2. A gold maple leaf on a black ground within a gold border it is Canadian Military Headquarters (CMHQ) established in England in the Autum 1939 the HQ was located in Cockspur Street in London the badge was also worn by base units in the United Kingdom which came directly under the command of Canadian Military Headquarters, I Hope this is of some help.

Rob. B

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Hi Rob, Thanks for the note on the CMHQ. I specialize in collecting Canadian army cloth, and I had early on investigated the possibility that these patches were related to the Canadian army in WW2. However there are some problems attributing these to that era. The other material with which these came was all CEF, no post WW1 or WW2 material was in the box. The box came directly from the veteran's family, so circumstantial evidence suggests that the patch is WW1. (Circumstantial evidence is obviously flimsy.)

More importantly, the nature of the patch is inconsistent with the WW2 CHMQ and reinforcement pool patches. The Canadian army in WW2 had a scheme where reinforcements would wear a yellow circular patch with different devices or symbols on it. Each of these symbols represented a corps of the army, eg the RCE had a yellow circle with bars of red and blue, or the Canadian Armoured Corps had the silhouette of a WW1 tank on the yellow. These patches do not seem to have been issued, or if so, only in very small numbers. Only a handful of examples of the corps types are know to exist. Instead, the yellow on black maple leaf patch of the CMHQ was used, which explains the abundance of the CHMQ patch.

The patches illustrated are a different colour than any of the reinforcement patches. None of the WW2 issue have a red leaf device. The CMHQ patch is always found with a yellow (or bullion wire) leaf. As well, the WW2 CHMQ patches are either printed or embroidered rather than one part sewn on another. The patch illustrated is two piece, the leaf sewn on the circle and it is a bit smaller than the WW2 CMHQ ones. Finally the piece illustrated is all wool, and "feels" old. None of these observations makes the item CEF, but taken together they indicate that the item is not consistent with the CHMQ patch.

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Hi Bill.

Thanks for the information on the patch, I copied it and put it in my Formation Patch Book for future reference, Thanks Rob. B

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Just a thought. Was this perhaps worn on an armband? If so it may have been on one of the post War armband warn by Veterans. Over the years I have seen a lot of these with some "odd" insignia on them. Most have the Battn Number, but a few had other symbols.

Just a guess.

Dean Owen

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Hello Dean, Yes that was a possibity. The reunion armbands are usually made of felt, and often include added elements, like flocked or sprayed on devices. However, this patch is all wool, and the construction is unlike the armbands that I have examined. It may be that the patch is reunion in nature, but it doesn't fit the typical pattern in construction or material.

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