Ever so slightly post Great War Sailor's Cap.
 

My latest find in its original hat tin. The tin does not conform to the earlier pattern that had a small brass nameplate fixed to the top of the lid. This one has to make do with the owner's name, C.C. Parker, scratched into the lid. Luckily, there is some accompanying paper work which shows that the original owner was SS/191854 Stoker Clarence Colvin Parker.

The cap itself has been heavily blancoed and has had the cap tally removed. The last cap tally worn by Stoker Parker would have been H.M.S. Wallflower and I would imagine that an original tally will be hard to find.

Looking at his service record, Clarence Colvin Parker enlisted in June 1918, so if this cap is one of the two that he was originally issued, it may well be a Great War issued cap. He was invalided from the Royal Navy in October 1920.

If you look very closely at the bottom of the tin it should be dated. Nice find.

I cannot find anything on the bottom of the tin. Would the date have been impressed or stencilled?

That said, I have owned several of the naval hat tins over the years and have never seen a date on any of them.

The paper wrapper inside the tin however states 6 7/8 which i presume is the hat size.

The date can be incredibly difficult to spot. They are impressed with the maker and the date in the middle. I only have two tins left. One is dated 1916 and the other 1939. I will see if I can get a clear picture.

I have cap to HMS Dominion which is blue- I had assumed that white covers were separate but was it a case of issue of one white, one blue? How can one tell if such a cap is issue or private purchase? Regards, Paul.

I think, but would need to get some books out to confirm, that several, at least two caps were issued, presumably one blue and one white. There may have been a removable white cover for the blue cap. The tin is certainly capable of holding two caps.

I have temporarily added a period cap tally.

Ok, best I can do. Very difficult to make out the date, but it is 1916. You might just be able to make some of it out?

Many thanks for the photographs, I will have a closer look at my tin now that I know what I am looking for.

1939, slightly clearer this time. Unlike the 1916 tin, this one came with two caps. In this case both white topped and names all match. No tallies though so I have added a plain "HMS" and a "King George V" until such time as records are freely available.

Superb photographs, thank you for posting. I am now going to much closer attention to Royal Naval Cap Tins when I am out and about. That said, they are nowhere near as easy to find as they used to be.

I have quite a few period cap tallies, but unfortunately not one for "Wallflower".

You might be interested that in February 1918 yellow silk was introduced for ribbon lettering as an economy measure. In August 1919 gold wire was reintroduced.

I have a set of 1916 British mess tins that has a very similar oval faint stamp. About 2.5cm across. Regards, Paul.
Attachment 254646

You are most welcome. I don't get much opportunity to discuss Naval matters these days.

As you can see it is easy to miss these dates and I only found out after owning the 1916 one for some time. You are right about the scarcity of these tins and the last one I found was at a boot sale and had had a miners helmet in it! I pointed out that in fact it was a Royal Navy cap tin, but he wouldn't have it. Even when I showed him that the lid wouldn't shut with its current contents in. Sadly it was a bit rich for me.