New member Introduction and plea for help!
 

Good evening everyone,

I stumbled across the forum by chance whilst doing some research. What a fantastic resource and thanks for allowing me to join.

Having served previously, I thought I would be quite familiar with the various badges associated with military uniform... how wrong I was, there are a vast number I have never seen!

Straight off the bat I was wondering if any of the members here could assist me. I have found some old photographs of my great grandfather in uniform, which I have (hopefully) managed to attach to this post.

The cap badge I believe is from the Middlesex Yeomanry (?), the ribbons I think are the war and victory medals but can anyone tell me what the cockerel badge on the right chest is and what are the stars underneath the medal ribbons for?

Any assistance or links to further sources of information would be very gratefully received! Thank you all in advance,

Ridge

I would agree that the centre photo is a Trooper form the Middlesex Yeomanry.


No idea what those stars are all about.

Thanks for confirming the Middlesex Yeomanry part Phil. Yes, both the stars and the cockerel badge are a complete a mystery to me.

Perhaps the cockerel badge is some sort of unit commendation? I know the US military have such things but have never seen it for British units so it wouldn't be something I put money on.

Anyway, a good way to procrastinate when I should really be preparing for Christmas....

Ridge

Hi,
Was your great grandfather ever involved in the Scouting movement as those stars on a colour felt background are very typical of Scout service stars.

The cockeral may be a Scout district/county badge and the uniform that of a senior member in the Scout movement.

Steven

They look like cub scouts stars, which are on black cloth

The tie and tie pin is definately not a Trooper's uniform.

By the look of the medal ribbons being poorly placed compared to where they would be on a uniform I suspect that it's not an official officer's uniform and post-war scouting is an option.

Cub Scouts, Scouts, Brownies and Girl Guides all wore the same stars but on different colour felt circles. Difficult to tell the colour in a sepia photo though.

Thank you all for the quick responses and for sharing your eye for detail! Greatly appreciated.

Based on your replies, I would make the guess that the uniform in the middle picture is one taken on enlistment into the Middlesex Yeomanry. The original photograph is on a postcard and I would imagine it was taken to be sent home to family.

The other two photographs, in which he looks slightly older, would suggest that that he is wearing his scouting uniform, and has chosen to wear his military ribbon bars - perhaps a common practice amount veterans at the time?

As Alan O points out, the ribbons are poorly placed - surely no Sgt Maj would have allowed him to get away with that! :D

Thanks Milmed and NRM, as I said in my original post, I have never seen stars like that on military uniform and your explanation is a great starting point for further investigation!

I will continue to dig but thank you all for clearing that mystery up for me.

Ridge

Cockerel badge
 

Could he have been a Tottenham Hotspur supporter?

Rob

I concur with the scouting theme for the uniform with the stars - as for the cockerel, I would hazard a guess at a French Scouting connection. It looks like one of the very early French scout badges before the divergence of French Scout movements along religious lines.

.....something like the image attached

This looks just like the cockerel badge in the original - sans ribbon.

It was common to wear medal ribbons on all sorts of non-military uniforms viz, police, scouts.

The jacket (with tie and tie pin) is not the same uniform as Yeo Tpr.

Chris