IIRC the colour was officially "Orange, Sealed Permanent Force Shade" which tends to be a closer to red than orange. The slip-ons are normally called "red tabs".
I have a few of them on uniforms and with shoulder titles. The actual colour and texture often varies considerably. Some are soft like melton cloth or velvet while others are very coarse felt. I suppose in wartime the quartermasters took whatever material they could lay their hands on that was more or less the right colour.
It is also because of these orange/red slip-ons that the central stripe of the Africa Service Medal is the same colour.
I'd suggest keeping an eye on Bid or Buy and eBay as shoulder titles on the orange/red tabs do turn up every now and then. There is also an outfit in the USA that sells reproduction red tabs for a small sum (something like $10) if you want ones without holes in them. I haven't seen the actual product though I was tempted to buy some a while ago to put on an old uniform I was restoring. The moths always seem to go for the red tabs first! The felt one tends to find in craft shops is usually synthetic material and not quite right colour-wise. I didn't end up buying the repro ones though as a collector friend of mine had coincidentally obtained a pair of genuine ones and asked me if I was interested in them.
|