[Guzzman]

With all due respect, I'm not quite sure what the problem is here!

The first buttons used by the RAF WERE RNAS buttons with the rope edging. This was partly because there were many thousands of them in stores. And for the first buttons to be stated to be 'RNAS type' seems quite reasonable. You even stated yourself that you had always believed that the first RAF buttons 'were the rope edged RNAS type'.

By the date you quoted, 4th April 1918, the RNAS had ceased to exist, so to refer to RAF buttons as being of RNAS 'type' would be correct. It IS odd that they don't refer to the roped border but they hardly give a very exact description of the button - they simply refer to the eagle as a 'bird'!

When the time came for the RAF to order a new stock of buttons in 1921 they dropped the rope edging as this was considered to be too naval - being worn on the buttons of all Royal Navy officers. However, they retained the crown and eagle which had previously been worn by the direct entry officers of the Royal Naval Air Service and which were not worn by any members of the other two services by that time. And of course the eagle was a quite appropriate bird to have on the buttons of the nation's air-warfare service. Which is one of the reasons that it had been adopted for use by the RNAS in the first place!

Please excuse me if I sounded too dismissive of your suggestion at the beginning of my reply - I certainly didn't mean to be!

Pete