AIF using Royal Artillery cap badge?

[tankengine888]

Hello!

After finding the Australia on the cap and making a thread on it, I found a photo of a digger with an unknown insignia (most likely RA), photographed below

21492 James Aubrey Gow, Divisional Signals Company  https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/134414

As I understand it, the Australians only used the rising sun as their cap badge.. could I be mistaken?

I’ve seen other cases of using different cap badges in AIF khakis, but I only now question it...

Tank

 

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

6 hours ago, tankengine888 said:

Hello!

After finding the Australia on the cap and making a thread on it, I found a photo of a digger with an unknown insignia (most likely RA), photographed below

21492 James Aubrey Gow, Divisional Signals Company  https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/134414

As I understand it, the Australians only used the rising sun as their cap badge.. could I be mistaken?

I’ve seen other cases of using different cap badges in AIF khakis, but I only now question it...

Tank

 

 

 

It looks like a Royal Artillery SNCOs metal type arm badge repurposed as cap insignia Tank.  They came in matching pairs so that when worn on the arm both could be oriented with barrels facing forward of the wearer.

 

Edited 15 September , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[tankengine888]

24 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

It looks like a Royal Artillery SNCOs metal type arm badge repurposed as cap insignia Tank.  They came in matching pairs so that when worn on the arm both could be oriented with barrels facing forward of the wearer.

 

I see it now! That makes alot of sense.. but I still wonder why he was wearing it as a Signaller but he might've been an Artillery bloke for a short time.

Thanks FROGSMILE! Must be off, 
tank.

[FROGSMILE]

8 minutes ago, tankengine888 said:

I see it now! That makes alot of sense.. but I still wonder why he was wearing it as a Signaller but he might've been an Artillery bloke for a short time.

Thanks FROGSMILE! Must be off, 
tank.

There was a certain status felt by gunners and he probably wanted to emphasise that he wasn’t infantry.

Edited 15 September , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[ForeignGong]

Possibly a sig in a battery????

[FROGSMILE]

14 minutes ago, ForeignGong said:

Possibly a sig in a battery????

Yes perhaps attached, or maybe he was a gunner at the time of the photo and later on transferred, as the “Divisional Signals Company” within the usual British setup was from the Signals Service, whose parent was the Corps of Royal Engineers.  It would go against all regulation to wear a cap badge for a corps that he wasn’t entitled to.  It seems unlikely that the Australian organisation would be significantly different in that respect, especially at that time when all were part of a unified field army (armies) regardless of origin.

Edited 15 September , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[tankengine888]

I suppose that makes sense! He was wearing collar rising suns so he was still representing he was Australian and Artillery.

Tank.

[FROGSMILE]

Just now, tankengine888 said:

I suppose that makes sense! He was wearing collar rising suns so he was still representing he was Australian and Artillery.

Tank.

Precisely.  Improvisation was not at all uncommon in the front line.