The devil worshiping viscount and the naughty parrot party trick!
Article about: I could not resist this even with the damage to the peak, but otherwise it is in pretty good condition as far as I can tell from the pictures. It is a WWI period (1917) staff officers servic
The devil worshiping viscount and the naughty parrot party trick!
I could not resist this even with the damage to the peak, but otherwise it is in pretty good condition as far as I can tell from the pictures.
It is a WWI period (1917) staff officers service dress cap, which would be quite desirable in its own right, but this example is named, which always adds to its desirability IMO. What makes this one even more interesting is that it belonged to a well known welsh eccentric who later became the 4th Baron 2nd Viscount Tredegar.
During the Great war he served with the Welsh Guards (another bonus for me) and in 1917 he became a staff officer and was friends with Robert Graves of the RWF and helped Seigfried Sassoon excape courts martial for his infamous peace letter.
The pictures of the cap are the sellers and are pretty poor but will suffice until it arrives, It appears to be named on the sweat band and has the information card inside the liner, so I assume it is the genuine article, though the price was good if it had been an unamed staff officers cap from WWI, so all good either way.
A picture of him and his parrot, which outlived him but is not doing the naughty party trick in this picture. Also one of his 2nd wife, the Russian princess, who was a bit of a looker IMO.
I'm looking at this on my phone at the moment Jerry, but I'll be having a proper look and reading the links when I get home, it sounds like a fascinating story! What a great piece this hat is mate, well done on finding it!
The cap itself is an interesting piece from nearly 100 years back and part of the Great war with a Welsh guards connection, but then you add in the rest of the history of its owner with his links to the poets Graves & Sassoon and it gets a bit more interesting.
His 2nd world war service is an interesting story in its own right.
When war was declared in 1939, he managed to get himself taken on by MI14, the secret service department detailed to handle carrier pigeons bringing back messages from frontline troops in France.
So unused was he to the discipline which goes with military work, that he let two Girl Guides look at the map used to plan the 1942 Allied attack on Dieppe — which, coincidentally, turned out to be one of the war’s greatest military disasters.
Such was the horror of superior officers when they learned that he had divulged highly secret troop deployment details — even though it was only to a couple of teenage girls — that Tredegar was court-martialled.
He was also famous for being friends with Alistair Crowley and was well known for keeping strange pets inclusing a boxing kangeroo.
A lot of history associated with a single object IMO.
The devil worshiping viscount and the naughty parrot party trick!
its just an opinion.
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by tailor marc
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