MT - The Naval Flying Wheel

[Jibba Jabba]

This is a badge a pulled from a huge collection of naval badges a while back. I`m glad I did because one came up on the ebay a while back described as Royal Marine Motor Transport and made some good money. Now I know for a fact that the Royal Navy used lorries in places like Palestine as well and I`m wondering if that seller might of added just a little bit of gilding to his description?

My question is.........is this the RN badge (which I suspect it is) or the Royal Marine Badge? Can anyone explain the differences?

You dont have to answer this one, but is it possible to date this one from the wool construction?

Thank you for your time.

[Cindyathome]

hi there, just a novice but looks very similar to something i have seen on the great war forum off the 1914-1918 website. Worth checking out. Someone sent me a copy of something VERY similar but not in red and kind of intimated it was likely to be something that the motor ambulance transport personnel wore. But i thought it was yellow. maybe the colour means something?

[Jibba Jabba]

Thank you for the reply, I had given up all hope with this one.

The design itself is copied from the army, which was worn during both wars on the most part on a khaki background with white stitching.

Yellow you say..........some Combined Operations insignia from WW2 was stitched with yellow wool this was due to an economy measure to replace gold wire. So most likely both of these badges were worn by the same units.

[rubicon]

Hello Jibba Jabba,
I think your red embroidered "MT Wheel" on dark blue background is an unofficial trade badge made during WWII for wearing on the left cuff of the blue parade dress of the Royal Marines. These unofficial badges were bought privatly by the Marines "who thought" they had qualification in a particular trade. Obvioulsy official trade badges were issuded like "Driver" or "Marksmen" etc... Official trade badges were also red embroidered on dark blue for wearing on the blue dress. On the RM khaki Battle Dress, trade badges were worn like the Army, white embroidered on khaki background. Complication is not very far as I have already seen red embroidered parachute brevets worn on the left cuff of the Battle Dress by Royal Marines Commandos in 1944-45! I do not think the Royal Navy ratings have worn these kind of trade badges on their jumpers nor on their khaki Battle Dress if they were shore parties like RN Commandos...
Cheers.
J-F

[Jibba Jabba]

Thank you for the reply J-F. So the eBay description was correct after all.