[fairlie63]

Hi Mick, and any of the other Australian collectors on the forum - I have a question for you.

Has anybody ever seen or held a genuine RAA hat grenade with the GvR cypher on the ball.

I'm asking for a couple of reasons which should become apparent:
1. the GvR badge depicted in Festberg is a photo of a GvR button superimposed over a photo of an EviiR RAA grenade.
2. the badge in Cossum is a photo of the badge in the Bob Gray Collection, Army Museum of SA - more on that later.
3. there is a photograph of a GvR RAA grenade in The Queenslander, article dated 12 March 1931, it appears to be brass.
4. about 2009 I was given a black and white photograph of what appears to be an oxidised GvR RAA grenade in very good condition but with some marks around the neck of the grenade which I am unable to fully identify - regrettably I don't have permission to post that photograph on the forum although I was told at the time it was from the Bob Gray Collection.
5. at about the same time I was told that there had been an Australian badge collector at one of the gun shows showing off a GvR RAA grenade he had picked up from a Bosley's auction. My informant was unable to remember whether it was brass or oxidised.

As RAA badges are part of one of my ongoing projects I decided to follow up on the example in the Bob Gray Collection, believing it to be the oxidised example I had a photo of. I had a friend in Adelaide photograph the badge, he only originally photographed the front, photo of which is attached for comment by members before I go any further.

I might note that the friend was acquainted with Bob Gray and had been given some B&W photographs of all the artillery badges worn in South Australia pre- and post- Federation by Bob. He was able to identify these photographs as being given to him in 1961 and the badge in the attached photo was in Bob's collection in that year!

Keith