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#1
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"Unusual" KC RAF Officers Cap Badge
Hi Chaps
The recent thread initiated by Peter B reminded me of an "unusual" KC RAF Officers cap badge in my collection. My late father chanced to call into a military tailors, it would probably be around the mid 1970's and he noticed that they were selling RAF and RN Officers cap badges at £1 each. I'm not sure if they were disposing of obsolete stock (obviously they would be long obsolete by then) or if it was a "closing down" sale; either way he purchased a few of each on a whim. I remember him saying they were stored in shoe boxes, or similar, individually wrapped in tissue paper. The RAF badge has no makers stamp or label so it doesn't add anything to the other thread but it's unusual in that it hasn't been cut to the usual shape. Does anyone know if these badges were ever worn like this or would they always have a triangular piece of material cut from either side. The other RAF Officers badges I have (KC & QC) are all the conventional shape as are all others that I've seen, as far as I can remember. Just for interests sake, also shown is a RN Officers cap badge purchased at the same time, this being trimmed in the usual manner. (I was given one each of the badges, don't know what happened to the rest of them!). David |
#2
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Pre war examples are often pear shaped!
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#3
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Hi Frank
Many thanks for that. They must have had them on the shelves for a good few years! David |
#4
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Not particularly uncommon. As noted, generally worn pre war and into early war.
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#5
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Hello David,
There really is no hard or fast rule with the oval/tear drop/pear shaped stuff, a great deal depended upon just where you bought the stuff from in the first place rather than when you bought it. There was, clearly, a very profound difference in going to, for example, Moss Bros or a small tailor in Lincolnshire, of which there were a great many. You bought what you were offered in the place you chose to actually be, somewhere, I do have a good portrait of a old friend, who was in number 5 Group, but, was commissioned from sergeant in 1944, he had been flying for two years, at that point in time and he wore a pear shaped badge, with his "best" for the picture. They are certainly very common, the air force was a huge organisation, I used to love all things RAF as a small boy and collected a great many back in those days, which I still have. Kind regards Frank |
#6
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Hi Frank
Very nice! Thanks for showing them. Obviously my badge is not quite as "unusual" as I thought. It was only when I read Peter's thread and went to check my RAF Officers cap badges, to see if any had the same Gaunt stamp (none do), that I remembered about the badge. It occurred to me then that I hadn't seen any similar but obviously I must not have been looking hard enough! I'm not really a big RAF collector as such but I like the Officers cap badges and I can't resist a decent brevet/half brevet when I see one either. Thanks again. David |
#7
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Hello David,
Well, we all collect whatsoever "we" collect, personally, I think that they are all nice things, okay, so common, yes indeed, but, still very nice things, as a boy at primary school in the 1970's, I was brought up on a mixed diet of airfix kits and boys own type comics, to me, the people who actually wore these badges were my complete and utter bloody heroes! I am quite sure that I must have certainly stood out at school, simply because I was not interested in anything much else really. Oh well, never mind, happy days indeed. Kind regards again, Frank Quote:
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#8
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Hi Frank
You probably wouldn't have stood out much at my primary school, I think most of us (the lads anyway) could relate to the above. We used to spend most of our time re-enacting the stories we read and I've made my fair share of Airfix kits too. I don't miss those little tubes of glue though! David |
#9
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Sounds like you needed a little bottle of liquid "poly" with the brush attached to the top, but, certainly not around until at least the end of the decade, as I remember.
What staggers me is todays prices of similar kits! |
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