11th East African Division or not?

[JerryBB]

this came to me on a bush hat. There are oddities about it so perhaps it is a fake or maybe post war formation using the same basic design as the wartime 11th East African Division, formed in 1943 and disbanded 1945-47?

The badge looks well settled into the fabric and worn/rubbed. The hat is somewhat odd, being of the 44 pattern but the tan colour suggests post war rather than wartime though it has a 1942 dated makers stamp on it.

I suspect that someone has badged up a post war hat and added a fake date stamp -though it does look convincing and there are size and inspector stamps as well- perhaps for reenactor use but is the formation sign correct or also a copy/fake. I know the original of the 11th EA div should have a black border.

On the other side is a nearly square patch of black (or very very dark blue?) cloth for one of the Bn's, 22nd? of the KAR.

the price paid was low so that perhaps if only the hat is original I would still have done OK, but if the badges were period correct then I did well even if a put together item.

[JerryBB]

Looking more closely the area around the ears is not correct for the WWII badge so I can only assume the worst and that it is a put together item using fake badges on a post war hat with a fake date stamp added.

Time to return it.

[JerryBB]

Seller gave a full refund and said to keep it.

[leigh kitchen]

A happy ending, tho' it would have been nice if it was gen.

[JerryBB]

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

A happy ending, tho' it would have been nice if it was gen.

Indeed, but at least I keep the basic hat, and hopefully abit of scrubbing will remove the spurious date stamp.

A lesson learned......hopefully

[leigh kitchen]

It's always annoying when someone takes a perfectly good item and "improves" it.

[JerryBB]

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

It's always annoying when someone takes a perfectly good item and "improves" it.

Sadly too much of this about.