Any help please?
 

Can anyone help identify what service/rank this gentleman belonged to? Photo found in my late mother’s collection and we have no idea…. The date is clearly March 1928 but we can’t read the name (if anyone can decipher it, that would be great!

Many thanks in advance

Hello KateH, welcome to the Forum. Your account is active and open for posts.

Welcome.

He is a Lieutenant in the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), latter is evident from his Cross Belt Plate.

Many thanks for your help Luke.

A very fine portrait. He is wearing the very dark green full dress doublet with black mohair trim, which would have the gauntlet cuffs and Inverness skirts with black horn buttons. That type of cross belt and black cords are typical of all Rifle regiments.

CB

Many thanks for taking the time to post this additional information.

From the 1928 Army List, the closest that I can get to matching the signature is: Lieutenant Kenneth Edward Milford Brunker. On the 18th April 1928 he was 'seeded for Colonial Service'.

The London Gazette has entries for K E M BRUNKER of the CAMERONIANS (SCOTTISH RIFLES) as follows:

Second Lieutenant to Lieutenant 23/12/23 [Likely to have been commissioned in 1921]
Seconded for service under the Colonial Office 18/04/28
Restored to establishment 05/03/31 [returned to his Regiment]
Lieutenant to Captain 12/01/36 [a long time spent as a Lieutenant but fairly usual with slow promotion in the Army between the wars]
Captain to Major 23/12/38
Named in recognition of distinguished service in connection with operations in the field March - June 1940 [this would be the during the German Blitzkrieg invasion of France and the Dunkirk evacuation].
Major to Lieutenant Colonel 05/04/46
Lieutenant Colonel to retire 03/07/47
Ceased to belong to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers 03/10/56 [this likely to be at age 55 so making his Date of Birth around 04/10/01.

There are several other BRUNKERS in the London Gazette so possibly a military family:
C H M BRUNKER a Brigadier Royal Artillery in 1950
J M R BRUNKER a Captain Royal Artillery in 1951
G C M BRUNKER Lieutenant CAMERONIANS Territorial Army in 1959 [possibly son of K E M]

Tim

Oh yes, I can see that! Thank you so much for your help. That isn’t a name that appears in our family tree so I’ll have to so some further research

Thank you Tim for going to the trouble of supplying this additional information. This opens up the way for further investigations on my part.

Oh yes, I can see that! Thank you so much for your help. That isn’t a name that appears in our family tree so I’ll have to so some further research

I note that the photograph is dated March 1928 so possibly taken just before his departure on Colonial Service? Looking at it romantically, perhaps given to one of your family members as a keepsake?

Tim