I think it is more complicated than that. I have images of officers wearing rank lace, but shoulder pips. Officers coming from Canada to the CEF might have cuff or shoulder rank. Officers of the CEF started moving rank to the shoulders as this was less obvious to snipers, but this was discouraged by many senior officers. Cy Peck thought officers who did this lacked "spleen"! Many kept their old rank system, especially highland officers, as a sign of being "old" soldiers. Officers getting uniforms made in the UK may have had to default to shoulder rank as lace became harder to find as the war went on. Officer's dress isn't as simple as regulations would have it seem.
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