Quote:
Originally Posted by kingsley
Dear Keith,
Thanks for the comments. Did the LH or Scottish wear any of the other three in WM?
The other sigs badge is standard Australian but I have no idea why the different colours.
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Hi,
White-metal skills and trade badges were first notified in Australian Army Order 106/1934 dated 31 May 1934 amending Priced Vocabulary of Clothing and Necessaries 1934. Can't positively identify which ones because they are only identified by their Catalogue Nos and I don't have 1934. They are not in PVCN 1931.
PVCN 1940 lists all the w/m badges, which were listed at this time as not of current manufacture, existing stocks of which would not be replaced. All types of material were replaced by oxidised copper versions in this PVCN. L, S and G are definitely not listed in w/m, these were worn by artillery only in Australia and were either brass, oxidised copper or de-oxidised copper. I haven't seen w/m versions of these three badges and they were not amongst the stocks of these badges released into the trade by the Aust War Memorial in the late 1980s or early 1990s although the w/m R in wreath was. These badges had all been handed over to AWM in 1949 from various ordnance depots, mostly 2 Central Ordnance Depot at Broadmeadows, Vic, and 2 Base Ordnance Depot at Moorebank NSW.
Also had a search of Standing Orders for Dress 1931 and 1935 - I have to admit there is not a specific instruction allocating w/m skill-at-arms badges to LH or Scottish. In fact there is no mention of material for skills badges at all although badges of rank (which included trade badges) were to be of brass or gilding metal. My copy of SO Dress 1931 is hand amended to read white-metal as well but this does not appear in the 1935 edition. Not sure if I've missed something somewhere.
Keith