Quote:
Originally Posted by redman
Hi lovat,
Just a question why do you attribute this 32nd company as forestry, is that a fact?
I think this South african labour company was attached to a canadian division or the canadian corps, it may even have had canadian white officers transferred in to command, as I understand many of the original white South african officers that came with these units were encouraged to join fighting battalion on arrival to western front. Which would explain the maple leaf design.
If forestry also understandable as the canadian forestry corps was substantial. Not sure why Tiptaft would use the 24 th battalion as template though if forestry?? As Tiptaft made some of the other canadian forestry unit badges.
Is that a Tiptaft disc in the rear of the badge? A little unclear in the pictures.
Fascinating
Dan
|
Dan,
I have never seen one of the badges before, and neither has my colleague who has been a Canadian militaria dealer for over 30 years. So my advice to you is that if you ever come across another one of these at a militaria fair the chances are the person selling the badge will not know anything about it; snap it up and bag yourself a bargain!! At the moment, and until I hear differently, this appears to be a 'unique' badge, possibly made as a specimen and/or trial cap badge for internal approval by the CO/OC of the unit. To the very best of my knowledge it was never 'Approved', despite it having a makers mark on the back.
Everything about this badge is an "educated guess", but it is based on the knowledge that SA labourers did work alongside the Forestry Corps. My colleague and I had also explored the possibility of ex-pat South Africans being recruited to serve alongside the CEF either in Canada or in the UK; however, we can find no evidence to support either this thought process or even the original supposition in my initial post. By extending it to a much wider audience I was hoping to see if there was anyone out there who was able to fill-in the blank spaces......
It does have a Tiptaft oval disc on the back of the badge. And you're right to point out that Tiptaft did produce a number of the Forestry Coy cap badges (i.e. the General Service, the 224th and 238th Inf Bn, and the 12th, 50th and 70th Company cap badges), but 'maybe' the rather long legend on this badge lent itself more easily to being applied to the 24th Inf Bn cap badge, which was also manufactured by Tiptaft. But then I'm guessing again
Lovat