How/Where to learn about British visor service caps?

[gbalke]

OCAD,

Based on the posted photo of my RCAF cap with the Queen's Crown, would you date this as a Post-War hat or later? It has side buttons made of black textured plastic , not cloth covered.

Thanks,

Gary

[Ocad]

Hi Gary,

Its hard to say. It would depend on the liner and seeing the buttons close up, but looking at the style of the QC and condition of the cap and chinstrap, I would say 1970s to early 1980s. However it is hard to say from one photo and also caps from the 60s, 70s and 80s etc are very similar in detailing and material.

Some makers actually have an ink date stamp on the cap construction under the sweatband. Gieves and Hawkes is an example of this.

[gbalke]

Hi Gary,

Its hard to say. It would depend on the liner and seeing the buttons close up, but looking at the style of the QC and condition of the cap and chinstrap, I would say 1970s to early 1980s. However it is hard to say from one photo and also caps from the 60s, 70s and 80s etc are very similar in detailing and material.

Some makers actually have an ink date stamp on the cap construction under the sweatband. Gieves and Hawkes is an example of this.

Thanks,I'll look into the ink date stamp.

I actually bought the cap on the cheap with the intent to replace the QC with a KC for my WW II RCAF display until the real thing came along. I'll just keep it as is, hate to mess up a decent looking cap.

Here are a few more pics:

[Michael Ryan]

Hi Bill, The advice given by Ade is good and the only real way to learn about British militay caps is to handle them and ask quetions of people who are familiar with them. As Ade says, the vast majority of officer's caps are private purchase ergo the original buyer has a relatively large choice of materiel, style, manufacturer, insignia etc. More modern caps ususly have a visor at an angle of circa 45 degrees whilst very early caps tend to have almost flat visors. A possible scenario could be, a young officer joining his regiment or the RN/RAF in say 1930 would wear the "King's" or Imperial Crown and if, like the RE, the badge included a cypher then it would be G V R. With the accession of the Queen's dad, his crown remained as was but the cypher would be ammended to G VI R. This configeration remained extant untill the accession of HM Queen Elizabeth in 1953 when the "Queen's" or Edward Crown replaced the Kings Crown and most cyphers were ammended to E II R. The problems arrise when you wonder if the badge has been changed because officially with the accession of each monarch it should have been. Ergo if his badge was without cypher, then he would have worn two different crowns on his cap. If it is with cypher then he could have worn both two crowns and possibly four cyphers all on one cap at various times. These being G V R, E VIII R, G VI R and E II R. The KC covers a period from the death of Queen Victoria to the accession of Queen Elizabeth II ie. 1901 to 1953. So a KC does not necessarely mean that the cap is of either WWI or even WWII vintage. A bit of a mine field I am affraid. Our young officer, now a bit older and wiser, has now worn a variety of cap badges whilst still with the same organisation. No wonder he took early retirement!!

My advise to you would be to stick with this forum and if in any doubt about age, badging, style, rank or originallity etc., ask!! There are plenty of people out here who will help you!! I hope that my ramblings are informative and of interest to you.

Regards and best wishes and of course happy hunting Michael Ryan

[BobS]

Schiffer Books is scheduled to publish a book about British Army Officer's caps of WWII; I believe in the next few months, but Amazon & Schiffer don't seem to be certain about the date.
My concern about this book is that many Schiffer books have copious illustrations & photos, but little text.
Their recent book on Imperial German Cavalry Schirmmutzen was a major disappointment to me; virtually nothing but photos, of varying quality.

BobS

[Jerry B]

Schiffer Books is scheduled to publish a book about British Army Officer's caps of WWII; I believe in the next few months, but Amazon & Schiffer don't seem to be certain about the date.
My concern about this book is that many Schiffer books have copious illustrations & photos, but little text.
Their recent book on Imperial German Cavalry Schirmmutzen was a major disappointment to me; virtually nothing but photos, of varying quality.

BobS

Hi Bob,


The book is written by forum member Ocad otherwise known as Oli.

http://www.schifferbooks.com/index.p...oducts_id=5431

A long overdue book IMHO

Hopefully Oli can tell us how much text there is in it.

[BobS]

I almost forgot a valuable book I bought earlier this year, " Service Dress 1902 to Present", by John Bodsworth, published by Partizan Press. Size roughly 8 1/2" by 11", 333 pages , hundreds of mainly color uniform & headgear photos. Really, a tremendous resource. IMHO.
The website is Welcome to Caliver Books.

BobS

[Ocad]

Hi Bob, and everyone,

A quick note about the book. It has a good balance of text and images, which is what I think is important for a collector's book. Too much of one or the other is frustrating. Of course with such a book the ratio of images to text is greater but it is certainly not a gallery of collections.

Also thanks for the link. The book sounds interesting, I will take a look.

Oli