Oldest soldiers in town

[engr9266]

Originally Posted by manchesters

Billy,

Yes you are wrong.

The unofficial T in wreath badge is seen on the arm of soldiers who normally also have a signalling qualification and is believed to be Telegraphist.

As for tunnellers no specific arm badge exists.

regards

Is this not the Tunnellers arm badge???

[manchesters]

Originally Posted by engr9266

Is this not the Tunnellers arm badge???

If it is, then its new to me. Always happy to be proved wrong

Never seen such a badge in wear, have you a photo or any references.

regards

[grumpy]

I certainly have not. Denis Edwards and I speculated about T wreath, but little snippets over the years make me reasonably confident that this was a Signals trade/ appointment, demi-official.

[Hoot]

In the fourth photo in the opening post the man in the centre of the middle row appears to be ASC.

[dumdum]

Originally Posted by grey_green_acorn

This Army and Navy Special Blend cigarette tin and its contents may be of interest. Contains 'Native' beads, a cartridge clip, bullet, musket ball, piece of shrapnel and a pipe carved with place names and a portrait of Boer Leader REITZ.

Tim

Hi Tim

Thanks for your post and I hope you'll be interested to see the photos of some of my examples.

The pipe is of a style often called "Ompa Paul" after Paul Kruger, I believe.

Not being a real expert of what we might call "folk art", but this has the look of "I've got a few minutes before we head off and I've just sharpened my pocket knife"

The Boer War ones seem to follow a similar pattern with a "portrait" and either engagements fought, regiments or the name of the owner.

I identified my first Gallipoli pipe because the man had put his initials and his regiment! I did go a little square-eyed going down a list of names under the letter "M" (family name) though...

Would be great to see some more examples from our members!

[dumdum]

Here are some photos of the Canadian pipe I spoke of last. Someone may be able to put this into the correct context so I'll try to list the places that I can see:

Valcartier; Montreal; Halifax; Shorncliff; Etaples; Calais; Amiens; Paris; Nice; Habana; Orleans; New York; London; Cambrais [sic.]; Kemmel Hill; Bourlon Wood; Sanctuary Wood; Ypres

I'm guessing that this represents the outward and return journey and maybe someone with a knowledge of Canadian (?) troop transport movements can put these into a more logical, chronological order.

No idea who he was but his initials are "A.H." He certainly got around......

Would it be too optimistic to postulate a range of units that fought at these places? Probably....

[dumdum]

And here's another example. This one has a more "professional" look to it but has the same list of "places been" on it.

The ASC badge on the bowl had me thinking that the "W.H. PORTSMOUTH" named on it had served with this unit but a quick check shows him to be Machine Gun Corps and also there is the tiny legend "From" that precedes the name.

From what I've found, Portsmouth only got a BWM and a Victory and can't have been at "Nery" or any of the other "opening moves" places inscribed on the pipe.

Maybe the recipient of the pipe had?