East Anglian / Royal Anglian officer buttons

[Expat Yeoman]

I've been attempting to research the buttons worn by these units i.e. in order of use (1) Royal Norfolk Britannia pattern (2) Star and castle pattern (3) Leicestershire Regt tiger pattern.

For OR this appears straightforward: A/A in 25mm, 19mm and 14-15mm sizes as expected.

Question - Is that the same for the officers too? The only silver and gilt button I have seen is 15 mm / cap size castle and key pattern, but not the larger sizes.

However there is a 19mm size with screw thread in A/A which implies the officers did / do wear A/A.

Or perhaps the silver and gilt are out there but hard to find.

Can anyone advise / confirm please?

(if it makes a difference, the Bns I am interested in are those (surprise, surprise) with an Essex link)

Thanks

Michael

[Expat Yeoman]

92 views so far. Can anyone assist on the officer's pattern please..?

[grey_green_acorn]

Michael,
My thoughts would be that as we are looking at the late 1950s onwards I would expect that Officers wore the anodised patterns. Buttons were amongst the earliest items to be produced in anodised aluminium, some with King's Crown, for the obvious reasons of reduced production cost and cleaning time!
Tim

[Expat Yeoman]

Thanks Tim. That is also my supposition but the existence of a silver and gilt button leaves some doubt. Perhaps that one is for cap with the remainder in anodised for uniform.

I have just found a stash of Eagle & Wasp and Castle journals so will plough through those, but if anyone can short circuit that exercise I would be very glad to discover more!

Michael

[norfolk regt man]

So there’s is a two piece, flat, silver and gilt , castle and key button, worn on the mess dress, side cap and peaked cap of the Suffolk regt.

I have not seen any two piece , silver and gilt, castle and key on a star.

[grey_green_acorn]

Giving this more thought, from the early 1950s until the introduction of No2 Dress in the early 1960s the 'rank and file' were wearing Battle Dress day to day with a limited issue of No1 Dress Blues and Bandsmen's Full Dress. That would mean a very low requirement for metal buttons and usually khaki green plastic General Service were worn on the greatcoat.
It would interesting to see COSA details and Sealed Pattern dates for King's and Queen's Crown anodised buttons in the 1950s.

Of course Officer's Caps and Mess Kit would tend to use sliver gilt and mounted buttons and still do for many regiments and corps as many of these items were/are purchased from Military Tailors.

Tim

[leigh kitchen]

Originally Posted by norfolk regt man

So there’s is a two piece, flat, silver and gilt , castle and key button, worn on the mess dress, side cap and peaked cap of the Suffolk regt.

I have not seen any two piece , silver and gilt, castle and key on a star.

An officers forage cap badged to the Royal Anglian Regiment with silver castle and key on star on gilt buttons.
Are they appropriate for the cap?

[norfolk regt man]

Hi Leigh, should have put other than a mess dress type.

[Expat Yeoman]

OK some progress.. I have found dress regs for 2011 / 2012 which confirm A/A for all ranks ex "Gold anodised with silver-plated mounted ‘Tiger’ crest
with laurel wreath" button for officer headress (and OR pattern being all gold).

By inference I suspect the previous castle & key and Royal Norfolk patterns were the same. Need to find some earlier documentation to formally confirm..

[Expat Yeoman]

So I have now trawled through 104 (!) editions of the regimental journal, with no luck...

It would seem then from the later documentation that A/A for all ex the S&G cap & mess dress button is the order of the day, and probably for all three patterns.


One related interesting snippet that did surface, from June 1959 thus 3rd Bn East Anglian Regiment... (my highlighting)

REGIMENTAL DRESS REGULATIONS FOR OFFICERS

Amendment No. 2

BADGES COLLAR.

"anodised badges of Other Rank type may be worn on Battle Dress if required"

Whether any officers chose to take advantage of this change is unclear though!


Alas that edition only referenced the Regulations but didn't reproduce them. They must be out there somewhere!