Finding the owner of a mens dress jacket

[Mangarth]

Hi,

I'm new here but I was wondering if anyone knew of any way to find out information about previous owners of items.

I picked up (what I believe to be) a mens airborne dress jacket from a charity shop several years ago and was wondering if there was any way to identify the original owner and find out more about them.

I've attached pictures which should hopefully help to identify it.




I apologise if there is already a thread relating to this and would appreciate being directed towards it, should it exist.

Thanks,
Mangarth

[Jerry B]

Hi Mangarth. A nice no 2 para mans jacket. I think you are unlikely to find out the original owner unless you have his full name and service number written in the jacket. If you had that you could try contacting the Parachute regiment or regimental museum or a site called paradata, but without his name and/or army number it will be impossible and even with the information you might still fail to find out any more about him.

[Mangarth]

Oh, that's a shame, what with remembrance day coming up it would have been nice to find out more about him.

Thanks for the quick reply anyway!

[Jerry B]

It is always hard to find out information from the newer periods as they do not wish to have people who are still alive being bothered by the public.

It looks to be a good example, if it had been an officer you might have had more luck or if he had won a major award as they can be easier to trace as they are better recorded than NCO's and other ranks.

[Jerry B]

Even with this officers version, as the owners name tag has been removed from the inside pocket it is virtually impossible to find out whose it was, though there is one candidate that I know of as he has both Army pilot and parachute wings and was a WWII veteran. It needs more research, but the missing rank insignia for a Colonel matches that of the officer that I know had both wings up in the 50's and 60's.

[Watchdog]

Hi Mangarth. A nice no 2 para mans jacket. I think you are unlikely to find out the original owner unless you have his full name and service number written in the jacket. If you had that you could try contacting the Parachute regiment or regimental museum or a site called paradata, but without his name and/or army number it will be impossible and even with the information you might still fail to find out any more about him.

Yes I agree, a nice original No2 dres from a Sgt of the Parachute Regt (the buttons ID the regt in these pics).

Jerry is absolutely correct, with no other info there is no chance at all of finding the soldier concerned. Even he is unlikely to recognise the uniform.

I served in that regiment and I would have no clue.

To put it in context this could belong to any Sgt in any battalion of the regiment (including TAVR battalions, so six counting 1,2,3 regular and 4,10 and 15 TAVR)) from the date of manufacture shown on this uniform. Such a uniform is likely to have been issued by 1970 at the latest but this type was used until about 1980 when the pattern changed so depending on the stores location from which it was issued that is rather a big "haystack" unfortunately.

Still a nice piece though. Has it got any other insignia, badges, ribbons etc?

Regards

Mark
PS Welcome to the hobby!