I didn't look in the Royal Artillery angle (despite my user name and avatar). It's possible that he came from 98th AT Regt certainly. Before transferring to the RA in June 1942, Crowe was in the King's (Liverpool) Regt, so he didn't necessarily have any RF connections before 1944. I have no definite information on any such regimental patch worn by any RA Regts (although many RA units did wear them), so I can't back it up with anything solid.
The problem that I see is that the blouse is badged to a major, and Crowe didn't get his temporary majority until February 1945. Equally the insignia for 167th Brigade would have been a single AoS strip until March 1945 when 24th (Guards) Brigade joined the division, so the badging post-dates his attachment/transfer by six months or so - a long time to be still wearing his old insignia.
Sorry I'm not being too helpful here. Unless there was some weird badging in 9th RF where officer's kept their old flashes (and they're a quirky regiment for sure), I don't see it working any better than the 2nd RF theory. There are two other possibilities for the grenade badge:
1. Rosignoli was either wrong or working from poor information (not unlikely). It seems to me that all the other input on the badge you have been given stems from Rosignoli. Perhaps with this blouse you have just stumbled upon a very old mistake or typographical error (I used to work in military book publishing - they happen all the time).
2. 9th Bn changed their badge, either after the reduction of 8th Bn in 1944 or later in 1945.
I know one of us is going to nail this one soon... we're getting there
Rob
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