CFA Imhoff Battery Cloth Flash

[Brian Conyngham]

Hi All

One of the gems I picked up on my visit to Cape Town this week.

These cloth flashes are reasonably scarce especially if you do not live in the Cape as I do. I found this 1950's tunic in a second hand store devoid of all its badges and buttons however the most scarce and important cloth badges were still there!

The I in the flash stands for Imhoff Q Battery. The other two batteries are Amsterdam P Battery and Wynyard R Battery, all named after old Dutch batteries situated at the Cape.

Link to CFA info: http://www.rfdiv.mil.za/docs/CAPE%20...0ARTILLERY.pdf

Needless to say I never hesitated a second, my wife was not impressed at my purchase "more junk" was the comment!

Brian

[Mike Jackson]

Excellent! I have never seen either title or sign before. If those are typical of the period for the South African Army it must be an interesting time for collectors and historians decades later. Mike

[Brian Conyngham]

Mike

The shoulder titles pop up from time to time but the Battery Cloth flashes are seldom seen, yes, we have a lot of variables which make collecting out here in the "colonies" interesting.

This is my second interesting find in the past month, the other being an early Natal Field Artillery officers cap badge.

Brian

[54Bty]

Some years ago I tried to put together a small booklet on the SA cloth badges, I sent what I had managed to produce to the 'Serving SA Master Gunner', only to be told by two retired MGs that cloth badges were never worn. Never saw my work again and my letter a few months later asking who's badges I had documented went unanswered.

Marc

[Brian Conyngham]

Marc

Really sorry to hear about your experience, no they were definately worn, it is crazy to have received such an answer from a the MG's!

I was once told that the tunics were worn with one Afrikaans shoulder title and one English shoulder title, however, my example clearly shows both as English versions, so was it the case if one was English you wore English titles and if you were Afrikaans you wore Afrikaans tiles?

Regards
Brian

[54Bty]

Originally Posted by Brian Conyngham

if one was English you wore English titles and if you were Afrikaans you wore Afrikaans tiles?

Brian,

That is what I was told by another collector and local to SA.

Marc

[Milmed]

Originally Posted by Brian Conyngham

Marc

Really sorry to hear about your experience, no they were definately worn, it is crazy to have received such an answer from a the MG's!

I was once told that the tunics were worn with one Afrikaans shoulder title and one English shoulder title, however, my example clearly shows both as English versions, so was it the case if one was English you wore English titles and if you were Afrikaans you wore Afrikaans tiles?

Regards
Brian

Hi Brian,
I may have the answer regarding the English and Afrikaans CFA titles. Was going through some documentation recently and found a copy of the CFA dress regulations.
The English title was adopted and worn from 1947 through to c.1975 (authority under ref Q66/62/1 on 18 July 47).
With the name change from 'Regt Tygerberg(CFA)' to 'Cape Field Artillery' on 1 Nov 1963, a regimental decision was taken to replace the Rt shoulder title with an Afrikaans title "Kaapse Veldartellerie"

The Battery shoulder titles were only introduced in February 1962. They were unofficial (no authority given to be worn) but were worn to c.1972/73

Steven