Army Physical Training Staff Sgt Blue Patrols
 

A nice studio portrait showing the insignia worn on the inter-war blue patrols - and an advert from the 1930s showing how much such uniforms cost.

Jon

Jon, thank you so much for posting this, forum member Grumpy and I have for years now been trying to trace the evolution of the OR pattern blue patrol uniform, which is far from straightforward and with mixed supply arrangements ranging over the decades between publicly and privately funded. The example that you show is one of the last to distinguish the SNCOs of staff sergeant grade via a line of gold Russia braid running along the base of the collar. The uniform shown had largely ceased usage in the army on the ‘home establishment’ before the outbreak of WW2 (but could still be seen in stations like India), and when reintroduced for the QEII accession the gold braid was not included, in order to keep the cost down. Your photos and the advert are very useful indeed.

Thanks Jon for the image. You will have everyone checking their collar and shoulder titles now for different sizes to see if it is a collar or a shoulder title.

Marc

Glad they were of interest.

A few more photos of blues wearers herewith.

Jon

I really like the second one.

Marc

Great pictures. Good to see the Armourer Staff Sergeant in the RTR group with his twisted cord shoulder straps marking his status.

What cap badge is that worn by the gunner sergeant stood alongside his lady-friend, I can’t make it out?

A close up of the interesting bit - the Croix de Guerre ribbon - which shows that the cap badge is probably that of the Leeds Rifles, after conversion to 66th HAA Regiment.

Jon

Yes of course, that makes complete sense!