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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

MG qualification badge


Andrew Upton

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To bump this back to the top, did Officers ever where qualification badges, or were they simply worn by the rank and file?

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I have a photo back in Scotland of my grandfather in Mesopotamia - in light summer tunic. From memory his MG badge on definatly his left sleeve, and I think above his stripes. I'll check it out when I get back. It's a clear picture, as he has his arm turned to show it off.

David.

I had a look at my photo - was upper left sleeve above (at the time) corporal's stripes.

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I have a photo card of NCO's of the Motor Machine Gun Service wearing the MG badge on the lower right sleeve. They wear no other trade badge on the left sleeve. However, as they are RFA men they are wearing the canon above their sergeant stripes.

Sorry Mr Gumpy :P

Steve.

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No problem: if a unit, with the sanction of its CO, chooses to wear a skill at arms badge incorrectly, in a war there was little risk of an annual inspection pulling them up.

Incidences of officers authorised to wear various skill or instructor badges [all periods included] include:

gymnastic staff, flying badges, bomb disposal badges, commando knife, parachute badges, ammunition tech. officer, Trench Mortar and bombing officer, Geneva cross ......

there were others.

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No problem: if a unit, with the sanction of its CO, chooses to wear a skill at arms badge incorrectly, in a war there was little risk of an annual inspection pulling them up.

Incidences of officers authorised to wear various skill or instructor badges [all periods included] include:

gymnastic staff, flying badges, bomb disposal badges, commando knife, parachute badges, ammunition tech. officer, Trench Mortar and bombing officer, Geneva cross ......

there were others.

Thanks Grumpy - I can just see a MGC Officer getting away with wearing a qualification badge (since they seemed to get away with just about anything! :lol: ).

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  • 9 years later...
On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2007 at 14:38, Joe Sweeney said:

Per Clothing regulations 1914 App XVII para 5.----- On Service Dress the lower edge of a "skill at arms" badge will be 6 1/2 inches from the bottom of the sleeve (this is W/O other badges in which case other rules apply).

 

Giving this thread a bit of a bump after 10 years...

 

Given I cannot ask Joe any more :(, does anyone else have a copy of the clothing regulations he cited, as I am now interested in how exactly other badges affect the placement of a skill at arms badge? 

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away from my CR but I can say: from the wrist up:

 

any Wound badges,

any Good Conduct badges,

any prize badge,

any skill-at-arms with musketry lowest.

 

In this context, skill-at-arms included MG LG HG signalling flags.

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8 hours ago, Muerrisch said:

away from my CR but I can say: from the wrist up:

 

any Wound badges,

any Good Conduct badges,

any prize badge,

any skill-at-arms with musketry lowest.

 

In this context, skill-at-arms included MG LG HG signalling flags.

 

That I already know - as per the recent question however, I am looking into how other badges being worn would affect the distance of 6 1/2 inches from base of sleeve to bottom of badge (with the addition of one or more LSGC stripes in particular).

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CR 1914 not as concerned as we are these days ....... page 113 footnote:

 

".............. on the left arm below the elbow ....."!!!!!!

 

I recommend Westlakes reprint of the CR, there are plenty on ABE Books usually.

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One hardback copy on Abebooks - £88 odd plus the postage. N & M P do a reprint paperback at a reasonable price.

Edited by squirrel
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One for the purchase list it seems!

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  • 6 years later...
On 16/03/2017 at 03:11, Andrew Upton said:

 

That I already know - as per the recent question however, I am looking into how other badges being worn would affect the distance of 6 1/2 inches from base of sleeve to bottom of badge (with the addition of one or more LSGC stripes in particular).

Sorry to revive an old thread, but it came up in a search when I was trying to answer this question, I wonder was this solved?

I have been looking at photos and uniform ensembles recently (particularly signallers) and have seen quite a variation - some with a wound badge and the skil at arms badge is almost touching it, some with a wound badge and the SAA badge some way above, some with it on its own quite low down the forearm, and some with it higher etcetera 

Was it just the case (with multiple badges) to just get it central and below the elbow?

Edited by MrEd
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7 hours ago, MrEd said:

Sorry to revive an old thread, but it came up in a search when I was trying to answer this question, I wonder was this solved?

I have been looking at photos and uniform ensembles recently (particularly signallers) and have seen quite a variation - some with a wound badge and the skil at arms badge is almost touching it, some with a wound badge and the SAA badge some way above, some with it on its own quite low down the forearm, and some with it higher etcetera 

Was it just the case (with multiple badges) to just get it central and below the elbow?

I never got the official answer to my question, but my experience is the same as yours and whatever the official answer may have been the majority of the time it was probably just a case of the badges being eyeballed into roughly the correct position so that they looked ok when worn and then fixed accordingly, hence the variations.  In my case I kept the MG badge at the regulation height of 6 1/2 inches and just put the Good Conduct badges immediately below and it all looks good :) .

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4 hours ago, Andrew Upton said:

I never got the official answer to my question, but my experience is the same as yours and whatever the official answer may have been the majority of the time it was probably just a case of the badges being eyeballed into roughly the correct position so that they looked ok when worn and then fixed accordingly, hence the variations.  In my case I kept the MG badge at the regulation height of 6 1/2 inches and just put the Good Conduct badges immediately below and it all looks good :) .

Okay thanks, that’s what I thought the case would be.

 

out of interest, I measured my original SD tunic today, the wound badge was already there, but the signaller badge I added to pre-existing holes (I don’t know what badge was there originally or why it was removed but a signaller badge lined up fine and I don’t have any others to compare). Wound stripe is 3.5 inches from cuff and bottom of the skill at arms badge is at 7inches.looks quite good to me and follows the ‘eyeball’ method - and it’s all below the elbow.

IMG_0572.jpeg.0d5e00a8fbd7f79c5151a7ef8f610791.jpeg

 

 

 

 

 

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Depends on how long, or short, your arms are as well presumably.

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Yes, good point 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found a photo of an east kent regiment signaller and the badge is basically on his elbow!!

 

IMG_0709.jpeg.3b15d8bcf8d044e4eabfeeeb4498d510.jpeg

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