Rabbit..
If I may....
A lot of us have been in "a war" (or two)...but unfortunately none of us were in at the correct time for this particular pic...
I will still stand on the earlier comments that this is most assuredly
PRE WW2!!
As for the "flap on" May I refer the kind ladies to Kiplings poem "The Young British Soldier"
The "Steady the Buffs" comment is explained thus...
This famous cry has been rumoured by many to have been uttered on the field of battle, but it was actually born on the parade grounds of a garrison.
It comes from when the 2nd Battalion of The Royal West Kent was stationed at Malta in 1858 and were quartered with the 21st Royal (North British) Fusiliers. Adjutant Cotter of The Buffs, a Scot who had formerly served in the Royal Fusiliers as a Sergeant Major, would not brook any disarray on the parade ground from his raw recruits, shouting "Steady, The Buffs! The Fusiliers are watching you!"
This greatly amused the Fusiliers and they called out “Steady The Buffs!” on the slightest provocation, first in Malta and later whenever the two battalions met from then on. The phrase caught on and was soon shouted whenever The Buffs marched by. It then passed into common usage, even appearing in Rudyard Kipling's novel Soldiers Three (1888) and his play Pity Poor Mama.
The nickname of the Northamptonshire Regt is "The Steelbacks"....This is because of the regiments imperviousness to flogging... My fathers former mob-A name carried on by the One Day Team of the Northamptonshire County Cricket Club...
"The Poachers" are the 2nd bn The Royal Anglian Regt, my former mob...the successors to the Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire Regts now added to since the absorption of the 3rd bn.
The "Grey Mafia" are Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corp (QARANC) my current mob!
