What are these? Strange shoulder titles.

[Adam H]

Hello all,

These came with some WWI items, but I've been unable to positively ID them. I'm not that well versed in cloth. I can't find a match to WWII titles, and WWI cloth seems to be limited to a few unit specific titles, as far as I've been able to find out.

I hope the colour shows relatively close to as it appears in person. Khaki wool backing reminds me of battle dress or First World War uniform cloth. It's not the KD tropical kind. The badges are backed with a thin, fairly tightly woven soft cloth. Thread of the lettering is a brick red.

At first I thought perhaps RCAF WWII period, but that doesn't seem to fit either.

So...what have I got here?

Thanks in advance for your help and comments.

Cheers,

Adam

[Bill A]

Interesting pair of titles. The titles appear to be consistent with other FWW titles. Unfortunately, there is little documentation for First World War titles. Many were privately purchased, and were available through suppliers and outfitters, (most notably, from Hemsley's) on private purchase.
Attached is an image of a CEF Canada nationality title in blue. It appears to be the same construction as the one in your post.

[Adam H]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your reply. Very interesting that these appear to also be WWI vintage. I know you've been making a study of WWI cloth (happy to get you better photos of these in time, if that would be helpful for your research) and was hoping you'd seen another pair. The one you showed with the blue lettering is indeed similar. Could the colour thread possibly have to do with the CEF Division I wonder? That's all I can think of as to why different colours would be used.

I'm afraid the other items I obtained with these are of little help. The medals are to a 1915 casualty...and came with a set of miniatures. I'm guessing the items may have come from different sources at some point (i.e. not all belonged to the medal recipient)

Let's see if anyone else has seen something similar... It would be good to advance the study of this comparatively poorly understood field of CEF insignia.

Cheers,

Adam