Patching 6th Gurkha Rifles Uniform

[Colin S]

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

Yes, they did - I can't remember if the Coy with 2 Para did though.

No, the Gurkha Reinforcement Company with 2 PARA just wore the their RGR cap badge on a maroon beret without any backing.

Those parachute qualified elements of 1 RGR who were serving with the battalion as part of 5th Airborne Brigade in 1997 wore a rifle green backing to their RGR badges on their maroon berets, while non- airborne elements wore their standard rifle green lids.

[ColdWar_Conan]

Originally Posted by Alan O

PM me with your address and I will send you a C95 UK flag patch worn in Bosnia in 1996.

Thank you, I dropped you a PM

[ColdWar_Conan]

Originally Posted by Colin S

No, the Gurkha Reinforcement Company with 2 PARA just wore the their RGR cap badge on a maroon beret without any backing.

Those parachute qualified elements of 1 RGR who were serving with the battalion as part of 5th Airborne Brigade in 1997 wore a rifle green backing to their RGR badges on their maroon berets, while non- airborne elements wore their standard rifle green lids.

This is very useful, non-airborne ones are like the ones that re-enforced Royal Scots as mentioned below, right?

[Colin S]

When I say non-airborne types what I mean is those members of 1 RGR who were not parachute trained and who wore the regiment’s normal rifle green beret with RGR cap badge. Only the parachute trained soldiers in 1 RGR were allowed to wear a maroon beret with rifle green badge backing in the late 1990s, when 1 RGR was part of 5th Airborne Brigade (and then 16th Air Assault Brigade after 1999).

(2 RGR recently became part of 16 Air Assault Brigade in 2015 and they all wear the RGR badge on a maroon beret, regardless of parachute qualification or not).

The Gurkha Reinforcement Companies of the late 1990s either wore their standard RGR rifle green beret or the regimental head dress of the unit they were part of. In 2 PARA they wore the maroon beret with RGR cap badge and no badge backing. In the Royal Scots they wore a navy blue beret with a patch of Hunting Stewart tartan backing the RGR cap badge. Both the R Scots and the RGR shared a heritage of using the Hunting Stewart tartan, although if I recall correctly the Gurkhas aligned their backing tartan in the opposite way to the R Scots.(The second photo is of the Royal Scots tartan alignment)

[Phil2M]

Originally Posted by 54Bty

What does the flag badge, look like, please?

Like this.

Marc

Thanks Marc, appreciate that

[ColdWar_Conan]

Ok, so thanks to everyone for the help. This is what I believe will be an authentic complete unifom of the RGR in Yugoslav Wars:

S95 Jacket DPM Combat Lightweight
S95 Trousers DPM Combat Lightweight
Rifle Green Beret
RGR Cap Badge
RGR Tartan
Union Jack Patch
RGR Tactical Recognition Flash
British Army Combat Boots
58 Pattern Belt
DPM RGR Rank Slide

Edit: added the belt and rank slide

[Alan O]

For a belt either an RGR stable belt or 58 pattern webbing belt.

[leigh kitchen]

1 Royal Scots Gurkhas ("B" Coy? I think 2 Para Gurkhas were "C" Coy? Could be the other way around) wore blue rather than rifle green berets?
My recollection is that the ones I had dealings with wore green, but after 20 years I could be wrong.
My recollection is that yes, they wore the Hunting Stewart tartan with yellow stripe running top right to bottom left as viewed from the front, but again, I could be wrong.
Interestingly, "British Army Badges" (R Hodges, published 2005) shows the tartan as not being worn on the beret but worn on the "Hat Felt Gurkha" with the yellow stripe running from top left to bottom right.

[ColdWar_Conan]

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

1 Royal Scots Gurkhas ("B" Coy? I think 2 Para Gurkhas were "C" Coy? Could be the other way around) wore blue rather than rifle green berets

Ah I see... Is that UN Blue or Navy Blue?

[leigh kitchen]

Originally Posted by ColdWar_Conan

Ah I see... Is that UN Blue or Navy Blue?

Sorry, I was referring to post 34 (I didn't want to quote the lengthy post or mess around editing it) - "navy blue".

[Colin S]

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

Sorry, I was referring to post 34 (I didn't want to quote the lengthy post or mess around editing it) - "navy blue".

Leigh I am sure you were right in that both the RGR and the RGR Reinforcement Company in the Royal Scots wore a rifle green beret, the only difference being that only the R Scots Reinforcement Company wore the tartan badge backing.

After I posted Post 34 I thought I’d made a mistake as the R Scots would not have worn the standard infantry navy blue beret because, as a Scottish regiment they would wear the Tam-O- Shanter or glengarry. Looking at the photo I posted, I think the beret is actually rifle green not navy blue. (I thought I had edited the post to remove “navy blue” but can’t have done it right!)

Apologies for my error.

[leigh kitchen]

Ne problema, my memory's getting hazy.

[ColdWar_Conan]

I like the preciseness of RGR Reinforcement Company in the Royal Scots... Better than an generic 'Yugoslav War impression'. When did the RGR join the Royal Scots for this? And when did they leave, just so that I can get a tough time span of when my impression is accurate to.

And, my final question for this topic: did they use an SLR or SA80? This is of course something I won't be getting, but just nice to know.

[Alan O]

They were created to fill a huge gap in Royal Scots numbers due to poor recruiting. The RGR agreed to create a company of Gurkhas.

The same went for the Para regt where a succession on NI tours had caused a lot of gaps.

They used SA80. SLRs went out of use in 1991-2.

[ColdWar_Conan]

Originally Posted by Alan O

They used SA80. SLRs went out of use in 1991-2.

Ah yeah I should've known that