Ox and Bucks in India

[Postwarden]

Some interesting insignia on view in this photo taken in Bangalore.

Jon

Lovely photo Jon, thanks for sharing, an Officer? Regards Mark

[grey_green_acorn]

Possibly a Warrant Officer Class 2, although difficult to see the rank badge. Extract from Ox&Bucks LI Dress Regulations 1930, see para (ii):

53. Khaki Drill (Abroad).

(i) The regimental serjeant-major and the bandmaster will wear officers' pattern jackets, shirts, collars and ties with plain shoulder straps. When the men are ordered to wear trousers and puttees, the regimental serjeant-major and bandmaster will wear breeches of the same material as the jacket, with puttees.

(ii) Warrant officers class II will wear the regulation khaki drill jacket with the addition of side pockets fastened by medium sized buttons. Gorget buttons and cords will be worn on the collar but no shoulder titles on the shoulder straps.

(iii) Warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men will, when shorts are ordered to be worn, wear hose-tops. These hose-tops will be worn in a double fold three inches in width. Shorts will be of the same material as the jacket. The bottom edge of the shorts will be level with the top of the knee-cap.

Tim

[cbuehler]

The jacket is of the warrant officer pattern as mentioned, with those lower pockets. Strange no rank is visible on the lower sleeves. Would also expect to see medal ribbons for such a rank.
The Ox & Bucks certainly had unique collar insignia of the cord with regimental button.
I have touched on this before, but these old studio photos can be notoriously unreliable with regard to regulation wear. It is not at all impossible that the jacket is a borrowed prop for photo op purposes. Judging from the poor fit, I think this is likely the case.
CB

[Toby Purcell]

Nothing to do with 1930s regulations. He's a private soldier wearing a durzi tailored jacket for walking-out, some time between 1905 and 1918. The Wolseley helmet had gone for other ranks by 1930, as had the 'OXFORD' title, and also the men were wearing hose tops, absent in this photo. Pre-war, men were often encouraged to procure a more officer-like jacket for walking-out, and this could extend to nether garments too, such as narrowing of long trousers and in some units fitting straps to go under insteps. The durzis (native tailors) in the regimental bazaar, who paid a fee to the regiment (CO's fund) for their pitch (collected by the QM), made their money from cheap tailoring for the soldiers and their wives. There were limits of course to what soldiers were allowed to wear, it was not a free-for-all, and each regiment had its own policy. There were generally accepted modifications that added to smartness without making a man appear above his station. This culture often carried on with the 'garrison' and 'TF' battalions that replaced regular units sent to theatres of war in 1914, particularly as the COs were invariably ex-regulars. The idea of men having 'props' for photos is a complete fallacy, and there is no evidence for it whatsoever. It was initially not usual to wear the OLI's unique regimental collar badge on KD, but is the kind of thing that was frequently permitted on a walking-out-dress garment, as it had been for the 'whites' worn in some stations pre-war.

Although the button and gimp cord pattern of collar badge is that generally worn by officers and warrant officers (from 1883 no collar badge was worn by remaining ranks on full dress), it was worn on KD by all ranks of the 1st Battalion before WW1, and there are photos of these in use. Interestingly this is not recorded in Churchill's magnum opus on collar badges, which goes to show how some regimental idiosyncrasies can be missed.
The 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry (Buckinghamshire added in 1908) was in India from 1866 until 1903, when it was relieved by the 1st Battalion of the regiment, who remained until the outbreak of war in 1914. The soldier shown is almost certainly from the 1st Battalion pre-war. The principal station was at Ahmednagar, but it was common for each battalion to have a number of outstations to be manned by a company, or two, on rotation.

[grey_green_acorn]

I did wonder at his less than smart turnout, apparent youth and the absence of medal ribbons! That is why I wrote “Possibly”. Always good to see detailed information that is posted with absolute certainty.

Tim