Off Topic
 

I went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition today. The front of the Academy contains this.

Chris

A really nicely made memorial, Mars and Minerva look really good.
Thank you for sharing.
Chris

Very cool!!!! I don't think it's off topic at all. I am a fan of the Artist Rifles.

Terry

I which case you can tell me I hope if it is:

• Artist Rifles
• Artists Rifles
• Atritsts' Rifles

The memorial above has the second one. You (as a fan) use the first one. I have seen used the third one also. :confused:

This site seems quite clear on spelling.

The Artists Rifles: a history of the regiment


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Thanks for the link. Nice article, but I can not take it serious about the correct designations of the regiment. It only uses " Artists Rifles " as the general name.

From several sources:
Raised in 1860 as: 38th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps.
In 1877: 38th Middlesex (Artists) RVC.
The 1880 renumbering made it: 20th Middlesex (Artists) RVC
Into the Territorial Force as: 28th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Artists Rifles) (TF)
etc.
etc.
Present: 21st Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (R)

The official designation never was " Artists " or " Artists Rifles ". They were only secondary titles (but of course used by everybody, the regiment itself in the first place, as the name).

Ray Westlake in Tracing the Rifle Volunteers uses " Artists ".
Regiment.org uses " Artists " as well as " Artists' ".

I would really like to know what is correct for what period in history.

I would have thought that if an apostrophe was used it would be on the cap badge.

Chris

That is a very good point indeed.
I also saw a picture of a helmet plate dated 1878-80 with 38 / ARTISTS
And same from a helmet plate dated there 1880-90 with 20 / ARTISTS.

It seems that indeed all badges have no apostrophe.

BTW, Wikipedia has the apostrophe in the names of the 38th Middlesex RVC and the 20th Middlesex RVC.

If the Artists Rifles Association website can't decide , what chance have we ! :confused:

Artists Rifles Association

28th County of London Battalion (Artist's Rifles)

The Artists' Rifles adopted the 'Mars and Minerva' motif as their badge.

http://artistsriflesassociation.org/...sts-rifles.htm


Edit : Forces War Records site contains this :

"The Artists Rifles (originally Artists’ Rifles until the apostrophe was officially dropped from the full title in 1937 as it was so often misused)"


.

It's a really nice plaque. I keep meaning to take an image of the one outside of the old depot of the Royal Leicestershire Regt.

I assume the " artist's " there is a typo. It does not show in the rest of the article.

That looks like real facts. Thanks for finding that and taking the trouble to post it. I think that settles it from the official side.

I do however wonder what "misuse of an apostrophe" means. I will let my fantasy work. ;)

This was the entrance to their headquarters in the Duke of Yorks HQ in the King’s Road, not sure if it is still there as it was redeveloped about 20 years ago for housing.

I would imagine that as the Artists Rifles were an Officer Training Corps in WW1 and did not deploy to France as a Battalion until 1917, most of the 2003 would have been serving with other regiments or corps.

That's fabulous, but it does remind me of a school entrance

My Dad's aunt's late husband served in the Artist's during WW1. I was supposed to get his helmet that he had been wearing when hit by shrapnel but no doubt this got binned when she died.

I have some stuff from him though. His name was Winsford PEARSE. I can supply his number if anyone would like to dig around.

Possibly

First Name:
Winisford
Surname:
Pearse
Regiments served with:
Unit Rank Service Number
London Regiment Private 2710
London Regiment Private 760296
Archive Reference:
WO 372/15/174421
(Can be found at The National Archives in Kew, and contains First World War, War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index)