There is nothing like belting someone over early morning coffee who has sold a fake or added to a uniform for whatever reason.
Let me clarify that I believe if one adds to a uniform then that particular jacket, shirt etc is not authentic to the person who once wore it even though the items added might be authentic. Call me a purist or whatever but that has been my mantra ever since I started collecting.
If one adds an item that should not be there and eventually that part of the uniform gets sold but the buyer is never told then there is a very high probability that the buyer will believe that that item was on that uniform when it was worn by the service person it belonged to.
I'll take it one step further. If the buyer is told that that item was added to the uniform and down the track the uniform is sold but he/she doesn't tell their buyer, then you have a change in historical fact.
Not all collectors are honest just as not all dealers are honest.
The only shirt or jacket that I have ever seen with the eyelets for the Selous Scouts wing and another wing (Army or SAS) being worn is on a shirt that was once owned and worn by Lt.Col Ron Reid-Daly CLM, DMM, MBE.
This shirt is now owned by James Morgan who lives in Canada. People may know that both Craig Fourie and myself had a public debate on this forum with him over his deceit in an arrangement the three of us had before the majority of Ron Reid-Daly's military items were sold at auction in South Africa. I believe the thread is still on here so anyone can read it if they want.
I have all of the details and photos of the auction, including photos that I asked for and were sent to me by the auction house.
I also have private photos that were taken by Craig Fourie in Ron's house of a lot of Ron's military items. I have never made these photos public.
Let's go to historical fact. Before the Selous Scouts bronze para wings came into existence, members of the regiment that were either para trained with the RhSAS or the RLI or the RAR wore those particular wings on their right shoulder. When the bronze wings were made by Reuteler and issued to the Scouts that were para trained then the army or SAS wings were removed and the Selous Scout wing worn on the chest on the right hand side of the recipient. There is evidence that some of the para trained scouts never wore the Selous Scouts wing on their camo uniform but continued to wear the army wing instead. This is not conclusive and I don't want to deviate from the thread.
The shirt below was owned and worn by Ron Reid-Daly. It was in the auction of most of his militaria that was sold by auction in South Africa and the shirts were sold in a lot. Yes crazy I know but they were. James Morgan a Canadian won the shirts (they sold cheaply I might add).
None of the shirts had a para wing sown on them. The only uniform of Ron's that had a para wing sown on it was his mess dress uniform which I won.
When the Selous Scouts bronze para wing was issued (Ron received two and one was stolen) Ron had the SAS wings removed and he only ever wore to my knowledge the Selous Scouts wing from that time on unless he was in mess dress. The scouts never had a mess dress para wing.
When I saw this photo of one of Ron's shirts with the RhSAS wing (from the 60's) and the eyelets for his Selous Scout wing on the shirt then I knew that Morgan had added the wing to the shirt. This changes historical fact.
RRD.jpg
Here is a screenshot of the listing of the wings (the Malayan Scouts patch is a fake) as taken from the auction catalogue.
CropperCapture[1].jpg
Here is a photo of the wing (the bottom one) that has been added to the shirt.
008.jpg
Here is a photo taken by Craig in Ron's house showing the wings that went to auction. The wing is the one on the top left hand side. I have never shown this photo before.
Army-stuff-084.jpg
Hopefully this answers the question asked by Blue Puttees.
Why would James Morgan be allowed to stay a member of this forum when he alters a uniform that changes historical fact particularly one that belonged to someone of such significance?
Well because we know that the powers to be are weak and non-confrontational.
Thankfully for people that want the truth there are people like Craig and myself who are prepared to state it publicly and privately.