SA Navy:If you are interested

[seadog]

SOUTH AFRICAN NAVY WO2 BADGE 1956 TO 1961

The SA Navy, in line with the Royal Navy abolished the Warrant Officer (WO) rank in 1949 with all existing WO’s moving into various Commissioned Officer posts. Because the SA Army and the SA Air Force still had the WO ranks there was a move to create similar ranks in the SAN. The SAN wanted to introduce a “Fleet Chief Petty Officer (FCPO)” rank equal the other WO’s. This was rejected by SADF and stated that a FCPO rank would be equal to CPO’s and Staff/Flight Sergeants. The SAN then fell in line with the other services except that although the WO1 badge was the same (plain Coat of Arms, the wreath was only for RSM’s) they used the Lion of Nassau (SAN Logo) within a wreath as the WO2 badge, retaining the CPO’s cap badge. With the formation of the Union in 1961 the badges changed to be the same throughout the SADF, plain CoA for WO2, CoA with in a wreath for WO1 and WO1 on a colour back ground for RSM/MAA and the SAN introduced the WO cap badge. The first WO2’s (6 in total) in the SAN were appointed in 1956, so only 6 people ever used this badge and only for about 5 years. It is very scarce and I only know of 4 badges in collections. Please note that the above is in my humble opinion and only based on hearsay from relatives of those WO’s, if any one has added information I would really appreciate it.

[Traist]

Hi Thank you for the good info. It is a very nice looking badge. Do you have one of these badges? Do you want to trade or sell? Andrew

[seadog]

Hi Andrew,
Not sure of present e-mail address so will send PM.