Quote:
Originally Posted by dak580
G’day Guys
I’ve been doing a little digging around for the 5th/6th Staffordshire (TA) badge.
The museum has a few pictures of the TA wearing the North Staffs badge. Being a Stoke based unit this would make sense.
This would have been in the late 50’s early 60’s so the badge would have been a/a
Cheers
John
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Hi John,
Just because the era was the in the late 50’s early 60’s does not mean that the badge can be assumed to be A/A as the general rule is that existing stocks must be used up before new patterns are issued.
The only safe calls for an A/A badge to have been authorised for issue will be via a range of documents such as the List of Changes (LoC) where an item is given the status of 'NEW PATTERN' or 'INTRODUCTION' via a change that is NOT ONE of intent only (such as change C 4714 was) and preferably containing words like "...has been created as a new pattern and is hereby authorised for issue..." making up part of the designation text.
Other documents such as the CCN/COSA/JSP 768 where the badge is stated as 'Anodised', 'A/A' or 'A.A' will also surfice as will a separate regulation where an item again is recorded as authorised for issue. e.g. use of General Service Corps badge for ACF units not affiliated to a local TA battalion.
It also has to be emphasised that just because a badge is authorised for issue it in no way means that it was actually manufactured let alone issue for active service wear.
By looking a photograph of a specific badge it would be very difficult to determine if a badge is one particular material or not and would be a very long bow in my opionion to draw by matching an era to the material content of a badge.
Regards
Chris