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Unifo.rm Insignia


snowtracdave

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Attached - hopefully - to this , is a photograph of one of mum's brothers , Ronald Whitfield . We've been tentatively trying to research Rons military service for a little while now but not having his service number has been a bit of a stumbling block . We do know that he was with the Royal Signals and legend has it that he might somehow have been involved with the development of RADAR . Having just made a start on clearing mums house now she is no longer with us , a couple of pictures have turned up which we have not seen before . Unfortunately uniforms and insignia aren't my area of expertise so I'm hoping the combined brains of the HMVF can tell me what all of his patches mean . Sergeant Ronald Whitfield (2).jpg

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As Tony says, 77th Infantry Division - more info here:

 

77th Infantry Division

 

 

The cap badge is the Essex Regiment, I believe:

 

Essex Regiment

 

 

From the divisional order of battle shown in the first article, that would mean that your uncle Ron served with the 9th Battalion, Essex Regiment, which belonged to 203rd Infantry Brigade (the senior brigade of 77th Inf. Div.). It would appear that the 9th Essex was part of 77th Inf. Div. from its formation on the 1st of December 1941 until September 1942 (after which it was converted to artillery), which nicely pins the date of the photo down to a 9-10 month period.

 

 

Hope this helps,

 

Kevin

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Also wearing his private purchase Regimental side cap so obviously his best BD for walking out.

 

One of those strips on his arm is presumably an Essex Regiment dress distinction.

 

I've just read that the 2nd battalion wore a 'Pompadour blue' strip (apparently a dark purple-blue shade) under the standard scarlet arm-of-service strip as a regimental distinction, so perhaps that also applied to the 9th battalion?

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