British Parachute Regiment Beret Dated 1967.

[leigh kitchen]

Picked up at East Lane Market, SE London around 1969/70-ish ( a magical place with Del Boy types lugging bulging suitcases of knocked off gear as they gave it legs to escape and evade the constabulary, cure all sarsparella sellers spieling like snake oil sellers, little old men in flat hats covertly selling feral kittens hidden under their flasher macs - and big cardboard boxes of mixed, uniform removed British army cloth formation signs going for 6d/2 1/2p each.

In one of the boxes was this Para beret, a very cheap buy for pennies.

The badge is a J R GAUNt B'HAM with full length slider but with the end of the slider kinked to wedge it very tightly in its sleeve.

[JerryBB]

A fine beret Leigh and worth more than just a few pennies these days

[leigh kitchen]

And enough change from half a crown to buy a pint of er, sarsparella.

[NEMO]

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

Picked up at East Lane Market, SE London around 1969/70-ish ( a magical place with Del Boy types lugging bulging suitcases of knocked off gear as they gave it legs to escape and evade the constabulary, cure all sarsparella sellers spieling like snake oil sellers, little old men in flat hats covertly selling feral kittens hidden under their flasher macs - and big cardboard boxes of mixed, uniform removed British army cloth formation signs going for 6d/2 1/2p each.

In one of the boxes was this Para beret, a very cheap buy for pennies.

The badge is a J R GAUNt B'HAM with full length slider but with the end of the slider kinked to wedge it very tightly in its sleeve.

OH the days the days....The Queens Hall at Leeds in the 1970`s and early1980`s a fantastic fair does any one remember a military shop In Ramsgate in the early 1970`s ?? boxes an boxes of W.W 2 webbing an loads of that weird Great war dated stuff that no body wanted ...... NICE BERET BY THE WAY !

[rizzo]

A collectors beret...one that has never seen service with the regiment.

[NEMO]

Based on what factors ???

[leigh kitchen]

Somebody took the time to pierce it in two different places on the slider sleeve area and to wear it by the look of, given it's slightly used condition.
A stiffener behind the would seem a good idea.

[leigh kitchen]

Originally Posted by NEMO

Based on what factors ???

Badge set too high? I've had another look at the beret, the badge is slotted into the higher of two slits that have been made, so I may have wedged the badge into the wrong one. A backing plate would certainly be a good idea with this design of badge, Id've thought.

[Tigerlily]

For educations sake I'd like to know how you can define that it has been unused within the regiment.
Very nice Leigh, want to swap it for a lovely old RA one?