WW2,Can anyone identify my Dads regiment?

[johnpeel]

Hi Ann,

Good site for searching records of all services is "National Archives" .

Probably quite slog but you have a name to go on and branch of service ie. Army. Also all the records are held at Kew.

Give it a try.

Regards Johnpeel

[Salty]

Hi Ann,

I can now understand your problem. I have the same problem with my father, although I know he was in the Royal Navy during WW11. He remarried after mum passed on and as I am not the next of kin, I cannot get a copy of his service record. His two children from the second marriage do not reply to my letters even though I have promised them all the info I have gathered for the family tree back to the late 1700s. All I have asked for is a photo copy of the record and a photo of his war medals. I do not want the real thing, just something for my records. Zilch.
I wish you luck for the future, who knows it could just happen one day.

To Al, re the Essex badge, made of silver or white metal?

Since the advent of ebay I have had to specialise for the time being. I now only collect Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Hampshire, Kent and the Gordon Highlanders.
Strange choice you might say, but being a Hampshire lad, ex RN as was/is most of my family. Then fathers family all from Kent, mothers side from Aberdeen where the Gordons were raised.
Royal Marines, well, I had the privelige as a raw recruit to play in a bugle band alongside the Marines every day for a year, hence my love of listening to their bands only. All the rest I'm afraid are not up to scratch as far as I am concerned.
There are so many beautiful badges out there for every Regt, stretching back years and I cannot afford them all.

I did however have one bargain, found an old military drum with a Hampshire crest on. Did some research and discovered that it had actually been an Army issue side drum to the Hampshire Regt. I have had it restored to its true colours and it now proudly hangs in my study.

Good luck all

Tom

[Salty]

Hi Ann,

I can now understand your problem. I have the same problem with my father, although I know he was in the Royal Navy during WW11. He remarried after mum passed on and as I am not the next of kin, I cannot get a copy of his service record. His two children from the second marriage do not reply to my letters even though I have promised them all the info I have gathered for the family tree back to the late 1700s. All I have asked for is a photo copy of the record and a photo of his war medals. I do not want the real thing, just something for my records. Zilch.
I wish you luck for the future, who knows it could just happen one day.

To Al, re the Essex badge, made of silver or white metal?

Since the advent of ebay I have had to specialize for the time being. I now only collect Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Hampshire, Kent and the Gordon Highlanders.
Strange choice you might say, but being a Hampshire lad, ex RN as was/is most of my family. Then fathers family all from Kent, mothers side from Aberdeen where the Gordon's were raised.
Royal Marines, well, I had the privilege as a raw recruit to play in a bugle band alongside the Marines every day for a year, hence my love of listening to their bands only. All the rest I'm afraid are not up to scratch as far as I am concerned.
There are so many beautiful badges out there for every Regt, stretching back years and I cannot afford them all.

I did however have one bargain, found an old military drum with a Hampshire crest on. Did some research and discovered that it had actually been an Army issue side drum to the Hampshire Regt. I have had it restored to its true colours and it now proudly hangs in my study.

Good luck all

Tom

[Salty]

Sorry that came up twice, a technical hitch!!!
Tom

[deadants]

hi salty, you can delete one of them.  look up in the right corner, you should see a delete button. No, sorry only modify on this board. You can delete on other boards.

deadants

[Arquebus]

Tom, just a quick reply....it is on a genuine officer's cap, probably WW2, black with red piping and a black decortaive cloth hatband.

The badge has never tarnished since I acquired the cap in the mid 80's, so I'm thinking logically 'white metal'.....I suppose it would be hallmarked if silver?

Also....Royal Marines (brass) and SAS (brass) both relatively modern...

Plus one Met Pol helmet!

Al.

[Salty]

Hi Al,

I cannot say for sure what it is that you have without having a good look through my books. The ones I have looked at briefly describe the Essex badge as Bi metal, ie; white and brass.
I have the family here for Easter so cannot have a good look until Monday pm.

Any way that you can email me a scan of it?  Jpeg please.

tom@whitman1944.fsnet.co.uk 

The RM and SAS would probably be run of the mill badges but I will have a look at the books for you if you wish. Only the larger Helmet plates for the RM are really worth anything, except maybe RM Light Infantry and Artillery. But they need to be exceptional for costing. The RMLI are pretty cheap on ebay, but the RMA may fetch something extra, not too many of them about.
SAS are really relatively new, so not worth too much.
Met helmet and plate, not really sure, depends how old.

I have been fortunate to obtain a couple of RM rare helmet plates, but you have to be very careful that they are not restrikes, some are very poor quality and some too good.

I just wish that Ann could come up with a picture so that we could identify her dads Regt.

Tom

[Arquebus]

Ok Tom, I'll see what I can do over Easter.

Yes, I agree.....I have seen so many badges that are just simply not clear enough resolution and sometimes all that you can do is guess from the size.

I have here a couple of programmes that I sometimes use in tandem to identify badges, but too much enlargement invariably means the pixel size distorts the basic shape.

In the case of this posting if only a quarter of the badge was showing in decent resolution, I have no doubt we could identify it......we will have to hope that she can find something else.

I don't know if your interest is purely badges or WW1 / WW2 etc......I have a number of family photos etc relating to both (a good one of Royal Sussex Regmt members) plus some CWGC info.

If you would like stuff like this send me a PM and we can exchange email etc.(better get off here).

Al.

[MacKenzie Clow]

Why don't you get your dad's service records.
They will be available through the public records office, I'm told,
of the National Archives.  His service records will tell you everything
about who he served with, when and where, etc.

My partner says the uniform is definately WW2 Battledress but the
picture is too dark to pick out specifics.

Here is the link for the National Archives:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm

Good Luck