Royal Artillery (Territorial Force) officers forage cap 1908-1917

[Jerry B]

A buy it now from the bay so the sellers pics for now. Royal artillery Territorial force officers forage cap, Major or Lt Colonel. The RA TF was formed from the Volunteer force in 1908 and after WWI was granted the right to wear the "normal" RA gun badge, prior to that they wore a version with laurel leaves on the upper scroll instead of the word Ubique. The maker of the cap, Hamburger, Rogers & co were well known military outfitters who had been in existence for many years, originally established in 1750,


1796 R. and H. Hewetson.
1814 Hamburger and Co.
1827 Hamburger, Harwood and Co.
1839 Hamburger, Rogers and Co.


then from 1841 when Rogers joined as Hamburger, Rogers & Co, Kings st, London, until they went out of business in 1917, though some sources claim Rogers joined in 1839.

They were best known for supplying swords and headgear, though originally they were renown suppliers of lace for the Royal family and for military uniforms.

The cap appears to have the remains of a broken chinstrap on it but still has its buttons and apart from minor damage looks OK and hopefully not to moth eaten as the sellers claim only a couple of minor moth nips to the crown, so I hope they were honest as they did not supply many pictures.

[BobS]

Very interesting to see a Territorial cap badge like, sans the "Ubique: motto. A nice pickup.

BobS

[Jerry B]

thanks Bob and beside being for the Terriers, a wartime great war example was hard to resist. If only I can uncover who it belonged to, though with just the initials I doubt I can.

[Jerry B]

A bit of history for the firm from a period article about them, though it might be a little small/blurry to read.

[Jerry B]

It arrived today and now I know why the seller did not show pics of the crown of the cap as it has been feeding the moths though all is thankfully only surface tracking and there are no holes.

[Phil Downunder]

I have just been sent this photograph of my grandfather, taken I believe a few years before 1914, possibly around 1910. We have no family records of his service. I think he served in the Territorial Force, possibly in a Nottingham regiment. There is a vague family story that he was involved with horse-drawn artillery, and that he fell between the horses pulling a gun carriage but was lucky to emerge unscathed, having been missed by flailing hoofs and the wheels of the trailing artillery piece which went either side of him.

I located this page on the War Relics Forum with the photos of the TF officer's forage cap and it looks like the one my grandfather is wearing. Does anybody recogise the uniform or the insignia? I'm a novice at this sort of research, so any advice on how I might proceed to identify with whom my grandfather might have served would be much appreciated.

[Jerry B]

Hi Phil,

his uniform is Royal Artillery, but it is not possible for me to tell if he was a Terrier or a regular from the image. As a guess I would think he might be Royal Horse Artillery though at that date they all used horses to pull the guns and limbers. He appears to have a musicians armband of some sort, trumpeter or bugler I think.

[Phil Downunder]

Many thanks Jerry. Yes, I thought that symbol on the arm might have been crossed bugles.

[Jerry B]

Many thanks Jerry. Yes, I thought that symbol on the arm might have been crossed bugles.

It is crossed bugles/trumpets, though it also appears to have something else running vertically through it. The standard infantry version does not have this but the arty probably had their own version.

[BobS]

The tunic certainly looks like that of the RHA.

BobS