Espenlaub Militaria - Top
Display your banner here
Results 1 to 1 of 1

Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?

Article about: Over the last couple of months I have set up a couple of tables at are local swap meet buying selling and trading military and have made quite a few decent purchases. I recently acquired thr

  1. #1
    ?

    Default Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?

    Over the last couple of months I have set up a couple of tables at are local swap meet buying selling and trading military and have made quite a few decent purchases. I recently acquired three uniforms all WWII era a BD,Walking out uniform and this one that has me rather stumped they all belonged to a Major RS MONCRIEFF who served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps .
    His walking out dress was manufactured by tip top tailors in Toronto and the tag is marked British Columbia Contract Feb 12 1942 and his BD looks to be custom tailored as well but this tunic has me a little stumped as to weather it is a Tropical worsted or a Khaki Drill jacket I have researched it on quite a few sites and find a lot of contradiction out there <canadiansoldiers.com> gives three separate descriptions for this style of tunic and the details are near the same.

    Khaki Drill Jacket (Canadian Pattern)
    A Canadian pattern of Khaki Drill Jacket was introduced during the war; it was a departure from earlier uniforms in that it had an open collar design, allowing the wear of a shirt and tie underneath - a distinction previously not permitted for Other Ranks. This Canadian Pattern KD was not worn in Europe; Canadian troops serving in the Mediterranean wore British pattern KD clothing, and those in Britain and the Continent did not wear Khaki Drill at all.

    Collar: Open collar

    Front Closure: 4 button front. A cloth waist belt was also worn with this uniform in the absence of other types of belts (i.e. if for a parade 1937 pattern web belts with bayonets and frogs were worn, the cloth belt would not be worn.) Some of these jackets had cloth belts permanently attached. There are also variations such as cloth belt loops, or eyelets to allow the wearing of belt hooks.

    Shoulder straps: Some variants seem to have been made with shoulder straps, some without.

    Pockets: Two breast pockets, box pleated, with scalloped flaps secured by buttons, two flapped hip pockets.

    Cuffs: Plain cuffs.


    Tropical Worsted
    For dress wear, in place of the Service Dress Jacket, a new Tropical Worsted jacket (also called a T-dub) was introduced, using lightweight material that during WW II had been used only in private purchase officers' SD Jackets. The styling was very close to the Khaki Drill jacket.

    As there are no tags and or manufacture marks I am having a bit of a problem putting my thumb on this one ?
    I do believe it was tailor made there is one other possibility that has crossed my mind.
    As there were no Tropical Dress manufactured in Canada during the war and all of are officers had to draw from British Supplies or have there tropical attire tailored could this tunic have been tailored for the Major . The variations in the Canadian Khaki Dress,Worsteds, and the British Tropical Tunics are near identical with some small variations in construction over the years and of course if they were tailor made there as well could be personal preferance involved in the construction.
    A couple of other small details is a field dressing pocket sewn on the inside lower right hand side of the tunic and two stamps Irish I think that I found in the lower out side pocket which was a neat little find in it self.
    There was insignia sewn on the right sleeve at one time as best I can tell from taking a few measurements there were three service chevrons which would denounce six years of active service as well as a shield sewn on the upper right arm approx... 2 inches high by 1/1/2 wide this of course could be any formation shield and will require a little more research into the Majors service history which I am not having a lot of luck with yet.
    The image of the tag is from his walking out uniform I have added it just to give a little context to the thread..
    Any and all opinions are welcome.

    Regards Mark K
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?   Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?  

    Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?   Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?  

    Canadian Tropical Worsted , Khaki Drill jacket or British Tropical ?  
    Last edited by Mark K; 10-27-2012 at 05:37 PM. Reason: Add image

Similar Threads

  1. 05-15-2016, 04:22 PM
  2. British tropical helmet...Military or Civil? WW2?

    In Cloth headgear-Western Allies
    10-21-2011, 08:49 PM
  3. 07-24-2011, 09:56 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Lakesidetrader - Down
Display your banner here