Naval/Submarine badges, help with ID, please?

[Phil2M]

Hi All,

These are 39x37mm in size. Bullion dolphins, crown and trident.

Can you ID them for me, please?

Thanks,

Phil

[dragon166]

Phil
I think these are Canadian Divers qualification badges.
Dave

[Phil2M]

Thank you. Divers had not occured to me, neither had Canadian. I was thinking they were RN submarine badges of some kind.

Much appreciated.

Cheers,

Phil

[Blackadder1916]

More specifically, they are "Ship's Diver" badges or as identified in the Canadian Forces Dress Instructions "Ship's and Shallow Water Diver". It is not the only CF diver's badge; the others being Clearance Diver (a Regular Force Navy trade), Combat Diver (an Army qualification) and Port Inspection Diver (a Reserve Force Navy trade).

[Phil2M]

Thank you for the further information. What do the differing colours, in my two signify?

[ddaydodger]

The green is for the CF tunic, from the era when all services wore the same green uniform. The red for mess dress, it is possible for someone qualified to re-muster into an army trade and retain their qualification.

[Phil2M]

Thank you Again, much appreciated.

[Blackadder1916]

Originally Posted by ddaydodger

The green is for the CF tunic, from the era when all services wore the same green uniform. The red for mess dress, it is possible for someone qualified to re-muster into an army trade and retain their qualification.

I suspect, based on the size and the bullion embroidery, that both are the "miniature" version for wear with mess dress. I can't explain the green backing, maybe it is faded from a darker colour. The red would indeed be for wear on Army mess dress, but that doesn't necessarily mean that an individual would have previously worn a navy uniform. One of the idiosyncrasies of the Canadian Forces is that "purple" trades can be posted to a unit of any of the environments (army, navy, air force) and be wearing the uniform of another environment; it is not unusual to have medics, supply techs, cooks, clerks, etc serving in one of HMC ships or submarines while being uniformed as army or air force. While so posted it is not unheard of for such individuals to request (and be given) the Ship's Diver course. I know and have served with several (mostly medics) who wear ship's diver or submariner badges on their Army DEU. I wore a flight crew badge (Aeromedevac - my avatar) on my Army uniform (and even wore it on my CF green Tri-service uniform when I was an infantry officer, but that's another story).

[ddaydodger]

I am starting to think that the red backed badge is early for scarlet mess dress, so maybe full dress? It was more common to see full dress scarlet than scarlet mess dress during the unification period (unless grandfathered, of course). The green backed badge looks typically green for the period. They are both private purchase badges, so the size may be a little off; badges from that period are all over the place when it comes to consistency. It's difficult to tell the size from the photos and those badges aren't particularly large to begin with.

[Phil2M]

Great stuff, thank you