This post prompted me to dig out some old notes on these titles which I thought might be of interest as I have found little in print about these titles. Here is the text from an article I wrote for the the 2012 edition of The Bengal Tiger, The Journal of The Royal Munster Fusilier Association
"As early as 1885 cloth shoulder titles, called patches in the records, scarlet worsted lettering on cotton khaki drill backgrounds, were sealed for several regiments for use on the Khaki Drill Frock. (1)
The use of cloth titles became more universal when Army Order (AO) 10 of 1902 introduced cloth shoulder titles to be worn on the upper part of the sleeve of the recently introduced Service Dress jacket. The first cloth title for service dress for the Royal Munster Fusiliers was SPN 5416/1901, sealed on 24th Sept. 1901; this is described as, “title embroidered worstered, white on cloth scarlet no 3, for jackets & great coats service dress all ranks, first pattern “R.M.F." (2)
A change followed on 28th Jan. 1902 when machine embroidered titles were sealed. The entry in the RACD ledger is given as, “machine embroidered cotton white on cloth scarlet no 3 for jackets & great coats service dress Infantry R.M.F.” For the Munsters the SPN for the machine embroidered version was 5416/1902.(3) It is noted as replacing SPN 5416/1901, which I assume was a hand embroidered item. Pattern 5416 cost 2½d in March 1903. (4)
These titles were short-lived, as ACD/India/1654 dated 18th Apr. 1905 relates, “it was approved to abolish the embroidered titles on the sleeves of the great coats and service dress jackets substituting them for metal as a cost saving measure. It is now proposed to extend this to tunics and full dress frocks abroad”. (5) This change was almost certainly to aid laundering in tropical climates.
(1) U.K., The National Archives, ACD Record of Changes, Catalogue reference W.O. 359, vol. 4, 247.
(2) ibid vol. 11, 108, Authority ACD Patterns 369 24/9/1901.
(3) ibid vol. 12. 9, authority ACD Patterns 507, 2101/2536
(4) U.K, The War Office, Priced Vocabulary of Clothing and Necessaries (London, HMSO March 1903), 7-8.
(5) U.K., The National Archives, ACD Record of Changes, Catalogue reference W.O. 359 vol. 14, 2.
Last edited by John Mulcahy; 09-08-16 at 01:34 PM.
Reason: corrected footnote 5 to vol 14 not vol 12 as originally stated
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