Royal Irish Rifles

[Spindlewood Cottage]

Hoping these are a good find?

[Luke H]

The cap badge is not original.

[billy]

The Nose! the Nose! God she is ugly! The way the eye / eyebrow and such is made looks awful, would like to see the U.V.F. badges clearly also rear images! Helmet with badge looks Very Nice! All the best billy

[Spindlewood Cottage]

Thank you shame about the cap badge. I will take some further photos of the buttons.

[Spindlewood Cottage]

Cap badge, buttons and UVF badges.

[billy]

They are fine! Someone will tell you the Prefix "A" it is for a County in Northern Ireland, I think its Tyrone?? A does not = Armagh nor Antrim, we are after all Irish, nice badge 1st UVF has a smaller hand than the 2nd UVF? all the best billy

[mike_vee]

Originally Posted by billy

Someone will tell you the Prefix "A" it is for a County in Northern Ireland, I think its Tyrone?? A does not = Armagh nor Antrim

Hi Billy , I'm curious about the use of prefixes on badges , I found a thread which indictates that different prefixes "A" - "L" (no "J") were used for different Counties/Cities.

Is there any documentary/verifiable evidence to back this up ?

The reason I ask is that previously (as recently as 9 year ago) the prefixes on the 1915 'On War Service' badges "K" - "Z" (initially no "J") were assumed to indicate the "wearer either by trade, industry or region".

It is now accepted that this was not correct and the prefix was simply a "series" indicator . For example , when series "K" reached a certain number (for OWS it was 99,999) a new 'series' "L" would start with the number 1.

From a 2012 article by Tony James on OWS badges :
"It is conjecture as to the meaning of this letter although with the list of certified occupations including workers in shipbuilding, mining, munitions, postal services and transport,several of the letters may be matched to recognised occupations. So, nearly a hundred years on, there are still questions to be asked and research to be done."


.

[irishhorse]

Hope this helps, it appeared in Aide Memoire some years back.

[billy]

So "A" does mean Antrim, thanks Danny, trying to read this and is problematic as I increase screen size the writing gets worse rather than better!

[mike_vee]

Thank you !

[irishhorse]

These pictures might be a bit better. Its not a great copy to start with, a copy of a copy of a copy...