32 Company South African Labour Contingent

[milcollectorblue]

OK - before everyone throws up their arms in despair and asks, "why is this posted in the Canadian Corps, Branches and RCA section?", read on...

Attached is a photo showing a die-struck cap badge that measures 37mm tall x 34mm wide in browning brass, maker marked "TIPTAFT / B'HAM" that I can find nothing about. It is exactly the same design as the 24th Bn CEF, i.e. it is a Canadian maple leaf, only this badge has a 'South African Labour Contingent' legend.

I am aware of various publications relating to the different types of Labour Corps used during both WW1 and WW2, including a tome of over 1,000 pages on just the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) - a real labour of love!

Early thoughts are that during WW1 these foreign labourers were used in various capacities for 'grunt' work, but invariably not in the front lines. POWs, Eastern Europeans, Russian prisoners and Portuguese were the preferred workers in Northern France as it was well known that the SA Native Labour Contingent (SANLC) suffered severely from the cold. It is believed that the Canadians encouraged esprit-de-corps to their coloured troops by providing badges for the labourers of the 32nd Company.

That being said, the 32nd (Forestry) Company started operations at Dreux, some 60 kms West of Paris on June 19th 1917. This was also at the time when the Canadian government started to fund CEF badges made by TIPTAFT, and so this particular cap badge may well have been paid for out of Bn funds, fully supported by the lumber industry, at the request of the CO, i.e. in exactly the same way in which many of the other CEF Bn badges were paid for.

Whilst there may be some form of tenuous link by searching through the various regimental block numbers for the Forestry Drafts, that would certainly take a very long time and without any possibility of a certain outcome.

I therefore throw this open to Forum members who may well have come across something more tangible in the form of print to add reality to my (and others) supposition.

I look forward to seeing how Forum members respond

Lovat