Thoughts/musings prompted by SAS cap

[matti467]

Having followed the thread in a way that someone can who has no concept of SF kit I read what Mr Parks and OC14 said with interest about uniform allowances etc.
I was commissioned on a TA B type ACF comission; and do not hide that from anyone. I was given a rather meagre allowance that just covered my service dress cap that was urgently needed for a freedom parade in, I believe, Driffield. I don't remember much due to the fact that as the officer carrying casket to altar it was also expected that I would lead the other adults out of the side door and take them to the local hostelry; which I duly did and paid for the round(s).
By chance a job and a little money came my way so I indulged and purchased a Sam Browne from Gieves and Hawkes where my service dress cap had come from. The latter had cost me £100 and had no cap badge, chin strap or buttons, they were seperate and not available. If inspected I could be criticised for having the wrong size chin strap but it needed to be worn. I later acquired other items at my expense such as ties and, like all subalterns, of every generation and standard of commission I sought ties of a different shade and the palest shirts. These did not all come from Gieves and Hawkes, nor did service dress at trousers £1000 and tunic £2000. These figures are no exaggeration. So officers will adapt borrow, buy second hand and vintage; as in my khaki sevice dress cap. It is always a good topic of conversation to say where kit had come from.
Yours
Matti

[Peter Brydon]

Matti,

Couple of things come to mind.

Firstly I bought a Liverpool University OTC service dress uniform some years ago from the family of the cadet. The service dress cap which I still have is actually Australian and has anodised kings crown Australian Military Forces buttons on it,but is was worn with a bi metal Kings Regiment cap badge.

It was bought by the member of the OTC from a military surplus store in London and presumably no one in authority noticed that the buttons were not Kings.

Secondly I get offered quite a lot of Mess Kits from ex memebers of the Forces and knowing what they paid for the kit in the first place, they expect to get good prices for them. I usually suggest that if the pattern of mess dress is still being worn they would get an lot better price from a serving soldier than they would from a collector.

If they sold the mess kit to someone who could use it, for say half or a third of what it cost, the seller would get a lot more than a collector would pay and the purchaser would be saving themselves a lot of money.

Peter

[matti467]

Peter,
I culdn't agree more. Uniforms and hats remind me of sofas and books. They cost you a fortune and as soon as you step outside the shop that piece of kit suddenly loses about 90% of the value that you have just paid for it!
Matti