RAF Transport Command cap+album & documents

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Good evening chaps, I have been looking at this lovely grouping for a week or so and finally decided to buy it! A great Canadian radio officers photograph album, cap, plotting chart, certificate of service and leather documents folder to the RAF Transport Command. Radio officer J. Sim served from 1941 through to 1945 ferrying many types of bomber aircraft around the world. Some of the images show him and his fellow air crew in Egypt and England, and there are also some shots of RAF bomber crews with what I assume are air craft he delivered. The cap has a very early (and probably unofficial) Transport Command cap badge on it, but it has clearly been heavily worn so I assume that he was allowed to continue using it!!
I have no idea what his medal entitlement was but I guess it would be the 1939-45 star and British war medal? If any of our Canadian colleagues can advise me better, it would be most appreciated.
I have never seen another grouping to this Squadron before, so it will take a special place in the cabinet! Leon.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Here's an image of an official WW2 RAF Transport Command cap badge. Leon.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

I have just found out after a bit of digging that the RAF Transport Command that flew out from Montreal bringing aircraft to Britain also ferried a lot of aircraft to the Far East, being based around Cairo, so that explains the pyramid image! They also dropped troops during D-Day, Operation Market Garden and supplies to Wingate's Chindits in Burma/India. They sure got about! Leon.

[Jerry B]

Here's an image of an official WW2 RAF Transport Command cap badge. Leon.

Is this a sweetheart or comrades badge Leon? Unusual for an official badge to be enamelled in my experience, though it is seen on some occasions.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Is this a sweetheart or comrades badge Leon? Unusual for an official badge to be enamelled in my experience, though it is seen on some occasions.

Hi Jerry, to be honest I do not know, but there was a bullion example on the net as well. There is one like the pictured example on the bay at the moment, but it was over £200 (nearly as much as my whole grouping!) so I think I will pass on that. Leon.

[Jerry B]

It sounds like you did very well with this group then Leon. It is a mystery sometimes why some badges etc fetch what they do and some do not.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Well it's all arrived and the album is very interesting. It seems our man Sim ferried aircraft from Canada, Florida and Bermuda, taking them via Greenland to the UK, Egypt and India! There were also postcards from the points of departure in the group and a funny little transcript of about 15 minutes in a "day in the office" with his fellow crew members! A close up of one image of Sim clearly shows him wearing the official bullion Transport Command cap badge, so the cap in the group must have been his old one that he used until the "official" insignia was produced. There is one very nice altitude image of Jerusalem and another of the Jordan valley, along with aircraft and air crew images of Liberators/fortresses and ventures.
I will post some images of the photographs when it is daylight!!
A very interesting and well travelled gentleman, Leon.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Here are a few more photos from the album in day light. They all date from 1942-1944, there are about seventy pictures in all, with some of them showing scenes from altitude over countries and times of r"n"r. There's one nice image of an RAF pilot and a civilian pilot from the Ferry Command days in the cock pit.
On a side note, the cap has the "piped" top to it that I would normally associate with a post war piece, but the image of J Sim from 1943 with his official bullion cap badge in use clearly shows that cap as having the "piped" top? Did the Canadians have a different cap style during the war, or is this just a private purchase piece, so that's just the way the tailor made it? It has the correct cloth side buttons, but the leather strap has the small metal buckles rather than sliders? Leon.

[Steelhead10]

Very nice Leon thanks for posting it, also some very interesting items that remind me of my Grandads R.A.F documents.

Matt

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Is this a sweetheart or comrades badge Leon? Unusual for an official badge to be enamelled in my experience, though it is seen on some occasions.

Hi Jerry, thought that I would just let you know that both the original Ferry Command cap badges and Transport Command cap badge, were these enamelled type's (+ the bullion version). They mainly seem to have been made by a Canadian manufacturer from what I have seen so far, and hit the £300 mark! They have two "screw posts" to the rear like a lot of American cap badges. Leon.