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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: JGDavies on Wednesday 14 January 15 11:26 GMT (UK)
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Anyone recognise the cap badge? Its from a WW1 photo of a drummer boy. The bigger photo has 'BEDFORD' and a word before this possibly 'SON' which is lost, embossed on the bottom right hand corner though that's not shown on this snippet.
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It looks very similar to one of the designs of the WW1 Royal Engineers badge.
(http://i60.tinypic.com/1580ajp.jpg)
(http://i57.tinypic.com/334jm1g.jpg)
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Hi, I have to agree with spotter2015, it does seem to be a match for the RE badge.
Frank.
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I agree it look very similar, though to me the centre part looks more substantial than the RE badge.
I guess to become a drummer boy in the RE you'd live locally? If so that all sounds rather neat. Find out where the RE were based, match a base where relatives lived to that part of the country and identify drummer boy in photo.
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Hi, there is another picture here of one, which shows a resemblance to your photograph.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/RoyalEngineersGeorgeV.jpg
Frank.
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I agree it look very similar, though to me the centre part looks more substantial than the RE badge.
I guess to become a drummer boy in the RE you'd live locally? If so that all sounds rather neat. Find out where the RE were based, match a base where relatives lived to that part of the country and identify drummer boy in photo.
Re comment 1...the blurring in pictures of badges can make them look very different from their real appearance.
Re comment 2...No, absolutely not !,...a person in any British Army unit might enlist and or serve in a unit which had no connection with their home area, and during WW1 they might be transferred to several different regiments/corps during their service,...as for the Royal Engineers, it was one of the biggest Corps in the British Army, many thousands of men served in it at any given time period, and they served all over Britain and all over the world.
That's why their motto is...Ubique ( i.e. Everywhere ).
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No, absolutely not !
I know, sorry, should have included a smiley face.
a person in any British Army unit might enlist and or serve in a unit which had no connection with their home area
Even a drummer boy?
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Oh, you were being ironic, eh. ? :) I just assumed that you were an American. :)
Yep, even a drummer boy, and bear in mind, when someone enlisted, they had a choice of regiment/corps, at least they did until later in WW1 when manpower needs took preference over the wishes of recruits.
Today a recruit will enlist at their local recruitment office, and then be sent to train at wherever the training depot of his chosen unit is, much the same procedure as it was back then, except that back then he would have enlisted at the army barracks of whatever unit happened to be in his local area, so for example, a recruit in Glasgow might have enlisted to serve in the Royal Artillery, and have done so in an infantry regiment barracks in Glasgow, and then have been sent to Woolwich in London perhaps, to do his basic training in the Royal Artillery.
You keep calling him a drummer "boy", and perhaps he was a boy, you have only posted a picture of his hat !,...the minimalist approach. :) ... and certainly at least up to the late Victorian era boys were legally enlisted as musicians, and even in recent years 16 year olds, and I think even 15 year olds, with parental consent, could enlist for junior service in the British Army.
In WW1 the minimum age for adult service was 17 in the territorials, 18 in the ordinary army, but nobody was supposed to serve overseas until they were 19, but of course many thousands of underage youths both enlisted and served abroad at much younger ages,...his hat is typical 1902 pattern service dress, so he could have enlisted pre WW1, or post WW1.
There were adult drummers in the WW1 and pre and post WW1 era, and if a man served overseas in WW1 he was entitled to campaign medals, and if you go here, and search on the rank of drummer, you'll see lots of supposedly adult drummers...
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/medal-index-cards-ww1.htm
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Hi, is this just a unknown photograph you have of a "Drummer Boy" or do you have a possible name for him? :)
Regards
Frank
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Hi, is this just a unknown photograph you have of a "Drummer Boy" or do you have a possible name for him?
The photo was one in a collection that had built up over 1880 - 1950 years in a cottage occupied by one Hughes family in Penybont Llanerch-Emrys a small hamlet in Dembighshire but also a stones throw away from Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, local town Oswestry. Of those in uniform so far pictures of a son: a Wheeler in the Army Service Corps; a son-in-law: a Military Medal winner in the 1st Bat. West Surreys and a 2nd cousin: a 1923 Metropolitan Policeman have been identified. I called the photo 'drummer-boy' when I scanned it but now its mentioned he could easily be older...
I don't have a specific name. There was only one son, the Wheeler, (and five daughters) he may therefore be a Hughes, or son of, say, a married niece i.e. an Edwards or a Roberts or a Williams...
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Now then, that's strange because the other regiment which sprang to mind when you first posted was "The Army Service Corp" but enlarging the image I thought Royal Engineers, still do to a certain extent, here is a A.S.C badge, not sure of year tho'
http://www.desertrats.org.uk/Badges/Others/RASCBadge.jpg
and another one here, http://www.whartonmilitaria.co.uk/details.php?section=britishbadges_corps&item=BBC0001
Frank.
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It's not RASC, it isn't star shaped and the top of the laurel wreath is open.
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That's true ;D
Frank.
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Good evening,
Definitely Royal Engineers, ASC had the 8 pointed star surmounted by a crown. http://www.britisharmedforces.org/pages/nat_badges_corps2.htm
I would say he is aged 16 to 18 to look at but could be a little older.
John915
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So, any suggeston of a strategy for identifying 16 - 18 year old drummers joining the Royal Engineers and who got their photo taken in Bedford appreciated 'cos I can't see one.
Jon
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So, any suggeston of a strategy for identifying 16 - 18 year old drummers joining the Royal Engineers and who got their photo taken in Bedford appreciated 'cos I can't see one.
Jon
You needed to look up the Territorial Force register of RE units, where you would have found three for Bedford. All three were in one of the 14 regionally based TF Divisions, in this case the “East Anglian Division”. The HQ of the 1st Field Company, was one. The 2nd Field Company in full was also there as the second, plus they had an additional drill station at Luton. The third was HQ Number 1 Section of the Divisional Signals Company. All units in Bedford were in the drill hall in Ashburnham Road. As a drummer your subject could only have been with the Field Company.