Faintly dated 1943, it has no leather band and is made from soft dark blue wool. Its not shaped like the black ARP berets, its floppy, almost a female type beret in material but arrow stamped and made by British basque. Any ideas?
Faintly dated 1943, it has no leather band and is made from soft dark blue wool. Its not shaped like the black ARP berets, its floppy, almost a female type beret in material but arrow stamped and made by British basque. Any ideas?
Maybe it's not finished, ergo lacks the band?
Nitram
maybe. the wool is soft and quite thin unlike my other berets. Its a strange beret
It looks like a Soviet Red Army womans beret with British markings????
Cheers, Ade.
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It could well be Ade, my thoughts were its a womens beret. So a fake or made up beret then possibly. There must be better berets for fakers work with though.
I would not dismiss it too quick.
Lez and I know about some womens services but not all: especially civil defence based organisations. We don't collect them.
What I do find odd is the lack of any lining for a British item.
But it does look like a Soviet beret. Where these made lend lease? No idea?
Cheers, Ade.
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It looks like a Civil Defence beret to me. I used to have a 1950s dated one exactly the same.
Rob
I would heed Rob's answer then.
Cheers, Ade.
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I thought it might be civil defence, Like I said earlier, I have black ARP berets, these are unlined but have a definate shape to them that lean to one side, unlike the standard round beret plan. If you held the beret you would think 'female' materal, its almost cashmere textured. Perhaps Ade is right, its a lend lease, Soviet manufactured womens service beret of some sort. Interesting beret though.
No, Ade's definitely not right, if that's what he meant, and I don't think it was. In any case it is not Soviet lend-lease. British Beret Basque Ltd are a known wartime UK supplier of berets to the military. They made airborne berets for the British Army (and probably other colours of beret too), so the type and style is what was ordered.
Look here:
I'm fairly sure some of these people are wearing that type of beret, particularly noticeable on the man in the back row, second from left.
Rob
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