RAF Special Duties Cap Badge
 

In a previous thread - http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...special+duties

there was considerable discussion as to whether the cap badge shown was only worn by Chaplains' Assistants or had a wider use. I have now found the answer.

In 1940 a special uniform and set of badges was introduced by the Air Ministry for "persons employed by the Royal Air Force on special duties ...official photographers, war correspondents...artists, service engineers attached from aircraft firms..."

They were to wear RAF uniform with a cap badge comprising the letters "S.D." in a circle in gold or blue embroidery according to rank. They also wore an armlet lettered "S.D.". By September 1944 when AMO A 939 was issued describing the uniform the armlet had been replaced by "a cloth arm flash with light blue/dark blue/light blue horizontal bands with SD in dark blue centrally placed"

In May 1945 AMO A 461 replaced the SD cap badge with "a special badge in chromium..of two concentric circles with the RAF eagle superimposed, surmounted by a crown". At the same time the SD arm badge was replaced by the two words "Official Duties" above and below the RAF eagle.

By March 1946 the question of issuing the Special Duties badge to Chaplain's Assistants had been agreed and they must therefore have worn the King's Crown version.

All these details are taken from National Archives file AIR 218212 entitled Uniform for persons employed on special civilian duties.

I have never seen actual examples of the SD cap badge or armlet or the later SD arm flash. Can any member share images please?

Jon

Jon,

Page 309 of the book, Badges and Insignia of the British Armed Services" by May, Carmen and Tanner has line drawings of each cap badge and a description in the paragraph, Special Duties Branch, if you have the book.

regards

Simon,

Thanks. I have the book and have seen the drawings but it would be nice to see real examples which appear to be hard to find.

Jon

Thanks very much for posting that Jon, very helpful and definitive, although it does now mean another cap badge to add to the list (as I too had it down as post war Chaplains Assistant). I knew the cloth badge was worn by technical types put into uniform when travelling round Germany at the end of the war and have a photo of such (although the insignia isn't visible), and never took to the common theory they were worn by WAAFs pre-uniform, but hadn't heard it included photographers, correspondents etc. Even after 40 years I still say I am always learning!

I know of the earlier SD badges and armlet but have not seen examples in the flesh. But again it's good to have clear descriptions on their use.

Very interesting, thank you.
More recently, 1980s and 1990s, civilian meteorologists [MoD scientists] serving temporarily in the field with either the RAF or the army, wore only the Met Office badge as slip ons [the old cockerel wind vane design] woven in blue silk on khaki, with the words Met Office. This, with a standard name badge, was the only distinction.
If war came , by the stroke of the Defence Secretary's pen, we would become commissioned ["dormant commissions"] and uniformed as RAF, with nothing to show which branch.
All the above is not to be confused with the uniformed Met men who were commissioned RAFVR and deployed as intrinsic staff in full uniform, returning to become civilians when the operation or exercise was over. These deservedly collected huge arrays of campaign medals as they accompanied just about every overseas mission. 10 gongs was not unusual.

Thanks Button. Regards, Paul.

I would like to think that the reason behind the change of badge design from SD was that someone eventually realised that German (or other civilians in occupied Europe) would take the wearer as being a member of the "other" SD (Sicherheitsdiens)(the SS Int Agency). About as subtle as the four Special Service Brigades (or SS Bdes). Mike

'Flight' 11 Jul 1940

"A special duties uniform for certain civilian officials has been approved. It follows the standard R.A.F service dress in material appropriate to the status of the individual. No R.A.F badges or insignia will be worn and button and buckle coverings are to be brown leather. An armlet in horizontal light blue and dark blue alternate stripes is to be worn with the letters "S.D." in 2 in. high will be worn above the elbow of the right arm. Authority to wear this uniform must be obtained in each case from the Air Ministry".

Thanks Harlequin, very interesting.

'It follows the standard R.A.F service dress in material appropriate to the status of the individual...' - I would guess this would be an officer pattern or airmans pattern uniform in the same way that the SD badges mentioned above are in "officer's pattern (gold) or 'airmans' (blue), but what constituted the status bearing in mind they don't seem to have actually worn rank?

I don't have them to hand but Margaret Nobbs in her 'Nobbs Notes' I think shows an armband which is dark blue with a pale blue stripe top and bottom and the letters SD in pale blue. In many cases she was able to reference these from actual collections (Even though descriptions on use were not always accurate).

The amateur graphics attempt made by me to recreate the look of the Special Duties armlet was based upon a flawed recollection of one that I saw a long time ago, either at East Fortune (NMS Museum of Aviation) or in the Ulster Aviation Museum.

In respect of the relative rank of the wearer- this would've been entirely a function of the person's pay-grade and position, either as a Crown Servant or within a contracting company.

I'm tempted to wonder if those individuals categorised as Special Duties Officers, and hence issued with Officers' Pattern Home Service Dress, might've had the same 1in. black rank-braid proxy worn at the cuff, as per the style initially followed by (Royal) Observer Corps officers? This was described in contemporary accounts as being like ''air commodores in mourning''.

A few other comments regarding rare civilian force badges associated with the RAF in WW2: I have seen (and may somewhere have photographs of) circular identity pin badges, with a personal photograph and individual works payroll number. These were clearly worn on civilian clothing, or works boiler-suits/dungarees, but it's not beyond possibility that these may also have been worn along with Special Duties non-combatant uniform.

Manufacturer brand badges- I've seen examples (from displays way back in the 1970s) of eg De Havilland / Rolls-Royce etc silver badges worn on RAF forage caps, and on ORs' Service peaks during the 1940s. I've no idea how common this was, during WW2 by works civilians, but I was sure I'd seen some informal pictures of ATA female pilots alongside men wearing such badged headgear.

I would imagine that people in Reserved Occupations, carrying-out vital war work, would've taken every opportunity to indicate that they were contributing to the war effort, and not shirking (hence the attempt to be badged-up in a quasi-military style)

I know of some aircraft designer types who were seconded into or were given short service commissions (?) in the RAF at the end of the war although they were relatively elderly and I think it was only for a matter of months, so whether they actually made it into uniform (or went abroad) is another question.

Among my files I have a photo of Dr George Pickard, a scientist, in such a role and he is wearing RAF BD and side cap and I think possibly RAF rank but definitely not the shoulder badges.

This book 'From Bouncing Bombs to Concorde: The Authorised Biography of Aviation Pioneer Sir George Edwards OM' has a photo of Sir George in uniform too, and im pretty sure shows the 'Official Duties' shoulder badge, although its been a while since ive seen it.

A note on the Observer rank - I think im right in saying no black 'Air Commodore' rank was ever worn, that position (Commandant) always being a serving RAF officer. The four stripes of Observer Captain (like Group Captain) being the highest black rank worn.

The SS Sicherheitsdienst badge was diamond-shaped, black with a silver border and silver lettering 'SD', worn on the lower left sleeve.
David

SD badge and armband
 

I have photos of the SD cap badge in pale blue on black and a SD armband of articles that were in the RAF Reserve Collection. However, I am encountering 'computer issues' at the moment.

I will try to post them in the next week or so.

Please Do!

I don't mean that any ROC Officers held the rank of Air Commodore: what I mean is that during WW2, they wore on No1 Service Dress just a single wide black rank-braid that was referred to, in jest by their comrades, as being similar to 'Air Commodores in mourning'. This is a paraphrased quote by me from my memory (I think) of the contents of the published Buckton history- I will dig-out my first edition of the book.

The unique black-only RAF-style rank-braid worn by ROC Officers was (as I understand it) along with the graded rank structure (Obs Off/Obs Lt/Obs Lt Cdr/Obs Cdr/Obs Capt) appears to have been a post-WW2 arrangement.

The conventional RAF rank-braid (which is officially midnight blue, with a wedgewood centre) was re-dyed black for issue to ROC Officers. Notably, no composite ROC rank-braid ever existed, unlike for the modern-day style of RAF Officers' braid, so every braid ribbon was stitched-on seperately (mirroring the style of seperate rank-braids worn by the RAF up until the 1950s).