3rd Canadian Infantry Division
 

Greetings all,
Lately I've been working on a personal project which involves finding a genuine shoulder title worn by each of the units of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division during the Second World War. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that there are many variations of the titles and that most of the units continued to exist after the war. I'm posting images of the titles that I have come up with and would appreciate your thoughts and comments. Are they genuine and are they consistent with what was worn during the war? Thank you!

Hi dobw,
A couple of questions. Are you doing all the titles? (Eg. I see you have a worsted slip-on which was only worn in Canada.)
Is the Royal Winnipeg Rifles title (top) black?
The QOR title is post war, late 50's or early 60's.
The Chaudiere title is post war.
The Glengarrians is post war.
The NNSH title in your image was worn, but only by the CAOF component.
The RCE title is also post war.

No, I'm not trying for all the varieties, one good one of the period for each unit will suffice.

The Winnipeg Rifles title is black. I compared it carefully to a dark green one I have that I believed to be post-war.

In regard to the Chaudiere titles, I tried to match them carefully to examples posted in previous threads. I definitely thought the printed one was good, and felt the embroidered one looked like an English-made type.

Can you give me some guidance as to how to recognize wartime examples of the titles that you've identified as post-war?

Thank you so much for taking the time to educate me!

Hi dobw,
You are off to a good start. The printed titles you have are authentic. And, if you really wanted to have titles representative of wartime, the printed would be the route to go. (But, they can get expensive.)
Determining a wartime embroidered title is a task. The things to look for include the fabric, the style of letter, and colour of the embroidery thread, the backing material, dimensions of the title and other things depending on the unit in question. For example you Chaud title has a backing material that was not available until the post war, and the same with the QOR title.
Wartime embroidered titles usually have a tight weave black, cream or buff backing material.

Also missing from my group is the title of the Canadian Scottish. No luck yet in that regard...

Thanks for those tips, Bill! I'll get back to work. That black backing material is so tough for me to distinguish. Some is like burlap, some is like thin cotton cloth, and some is like cheesecloth. If I understand you correctly, I'm looking for the tighter weave?

Is the larger Winnipeg Rifles okay?

Thanks again,
Dob

Trying to sort this out in my head:

1. The back of the RWR title: Is this the good stuff?

2. Reverse of the Chaudiere badge

and

3. Back of the QOR: This is the later material?

Thanks for your patience,
Dob

That is correct Dob.

Thanks, Bill. As you can see, I need your book!

A few months have passed and I'm getting closer to completing this project, I think. As always, any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

Hi Dob, coming along pretty good.
The second QOR title is post war.

Thanks for the encouragement, Bill!

That pesky QOR title! This is the third example of the embroidered type that I've bought. Can anyone post a picture of what the back of a good wartime one is supposed to look like?

Nice thread. Thank you for posting. I am happy to see collections on this topic.