Canadian Colonel?
 

Hello experts!

I'm after a little help with this epaulette / shoulder board. If taken at face value it would appear to be Canadian Colonel full dress shoulder board, however lots of googling had not been able to confirm this. It would appear that modern Canadian Colonels have the insignia of 4 stripes.

So, is this real? and if so, could you identify the era? are we talking WWI? I took possession of it along with other items, most of which are roughly 1900-1930.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...p?albumid=1907 is the link to my album.

Any pointers, ideas, comments would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, Welcome to the Forum.
You have a shoulder board probably for the dress blues 50's-60's era. With unification in 1968, the rank insignia was switched to the "stripes". Even then, many officer's continued to wear the older rank on the blue patrols and mess kit.

Very often units do not wear the brass shoulder titles on the cords, so perhaps this is from WW1 or WW2?

With a queen's crown?

Patrols
 

Bill A is right ...a dress tunic or patrol jacket adornment probably from the 1960's pre unification...

Unfortunately, the Silver title, as oppose to gold/brass, doesn't narrow it down much at all. Classy item, though.

The Queen's crown is definitely the puzzler... Are there any units that wear the title on the cords or as it is a colonel maybe it was an HQ or staff officer requirement for senior officers working in or with other countries?

Sorry, I don't understand how the qc on the shoulder board is a "puzzler"? It indicates the era of the shoulder boards, which would date these to post 1953 up to and maybe perhaps a bit beyond unification. This type of shoulder board was worn on the blue patrol uniform and on full dress uniforms in that period. As a full Col. this officer may have worn the Canada as he was a staff officer or perhaps general list. He was not regimentally affiliated.

Canadian Colonel
 

You're absolutlely right Bill. I can only speak for the RCOC pre unification but I'm sure it applies to all Canadian army regt's and Corps. LtCol and below wore the affiliation of their Corps. In the RCOC, these officers wore the silver plated shoulder badges on gold cords on Full Dress, 1A and 1B Orders of Dress.Upon promotion to full Col, the officer was considered 'out of the stream' as it were and were considered 'Gen staff' and wore the Canada silver plated shoulder titles. Although, in the RCOC case, full
cols were still employed in 'RCOC positions' ie COMDT 25 COD, they wore Gen List Badges and of course; the ever elusive
gorget!

Cheers Al

Makes sense now... I haven't seen the titles on cords before and assumed that it was a wartime requirement, but was puzzled by the QC on what I believed to be a wartime shoulder cord.

FYI, Westies do not wear regimental titles on cords for patrol dress. Armoured units I've seen also do not wear the titles on the chain mail with patrols.