For Peter Brydon....1902 Pattern Service Dress,
 

© IWM (UNI 2168)

Someone probably had Peter in mind when they checked this uniform......;) see shoulder title.....

http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib...0890/large.jpg

The British Army had long been aware of the advantages of clothing its troops in uniforms that blended with local terrain on active service, however it was not until 1902 that a universal khaki uniform was adopted for all forms of dress, excluding ceremonial and walking out. Made of khaki serge, Service Dress was practical, and apart from some notable modifications served well throughout the First World War and through to 1945. For non-commissioned ranks cloth-embroidered regimental titles were worn at the shoulder with separate patches below indicating the battalion number (replaced by metal titles worn at the shoulder from 1907) and detachable shoulder straps piped with colours particular to the branch of service; i.e. red for infantry and yellow for cavalry.

One of those tunics we debated on here last year with multiple rank badges on it as a "pattern" example.

Very interesting.

regards

Thanks Jo,

The picture was posted on the GWF recently and I had wondered where all the "LIVERPOOL" cloth titles had disappeared to, in the time I have been collecting I have never seen an example in a collection or ever seen one for sale.

Regards

Peter

Peter

neither have I seen any of the Irish Regiment titles in either collections or for sale that I have recorded or can recall.


John

This post prompted me to dig out some old notes on these titles which I thought might be of interest as I have found little in print about these titles. Here is the text from an article I wrote for the the 2012 edition of The Bengal Tiger, The Journal of The Royal Munster Fusilier Association

"As early as 1885 cloth shoulder titles, called patches in the records, scarlet worsted lettering on cotton khaki drill backgrounds, were sealed for several regiments for use on the Khaki Drill Frock. (1)

The use of cloth titles became more universal when Army Order (AO) 10 of 1902 introduced cloth shoulder titles to be worn on the upper part of the sleeve of the recently introduced Service Dress jacket. The first cloth title for service dress for the Royal Munster Fusiliers was SPN 5416/1901, sealed on 24th Sept. 1901; this is described as, “title embroidered worstered, white on cloth scarlet no 3, for jackets & great coats service dress all ranks, first pattern “R.M.F." (2)

A change followed on 28th Jan. 1902 when machine embroidered titles were sealed. The entry in the RACD ledger is given as, “machine embroidered cotton white on cloth scarlet no 3 for jackets & great coats service dress Infantry R.M.F.” For the Munsters the SPN for the machine embroidered version was 5416/1902.(3) It is noted as replacing SPN 5416/1901, which I assume was a hand embroidered item. Pattern 5416 cost 2½d in March 1903. (4)

These titles were short-lived, as ACD/India/1654 dated 18th Apr. 1905 relates, “it was approved to abolish the embroidered titles on the sleeves of the great coats and service dress jackets substituting them for metal as a cost saving measure. It is now proposed to extend this to tunics and full dress frocks abroad”. (5) This change was almost certainly to aid laundering in tropical climates.


(1) U.K., The National Archives, ACD Record of Changes, Catalogue reference W.O. 359, vol. 4, 247.
(2) ibid vol. 11, 108, Authority ACD Patterns 369 24/9/1901.
(3) ibid vol. 12. 9, authority ACD Patterns 507, 2101/2536
(4) U.K, The War Office, Priced Vocabulary of Clothing and Necessaries (London, HMSO March 1903), 7-8.
(5) U.K., The National Archives, ACD Record of Changes, Catalogue reference W.O. 359 vol. 14, 2.

I picked this 1902 pattern up on eBay for £20. I had no knowledge of cloth shoulder titles and did not realise how scarce it was. I have since learned through the Forum it was a good buy, they don't even have one it the Cheshire Regiment museum.

As the Liverpool and the Cheshire are the only two I have ever seen, has anyone else got any they would kindly post a picture of. thanks Andrew.

Can you favour us with a pic of the back, please?

GTB