Boer War cloth pith helmet flash

[Jerry B]

A sun helmet flash for the 1st Bn royal welsh fusiliers worn during the 2nd Boer War.

it has been made by cutting down a embroidered should strap from the scarlet service tunic and the sewing holes from where it was attached to the Pagri can clearly be seen.

"The 1st Battalion sailed on the Oriental on 22nd October 1899, and arrived at the Cape about 13th November. They were sent on to Durban, and along with the 2nd Royal Fusiliers, 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, and 2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers, formed the 6th Brigade under Major General Barton. The work of the brigade is sketched under the Royal Fusiliers, and that of the Natal Army generally under the 2nd Queen's.

At Colenso the losses of the battalion were trifling.

When General Buller made his second attempt against the Colenso position the battalion went out with Lord Dundonald to Hussar Hill on 12th February, and again on the 14th when the hill was finally occupied. All through the fourteen days' fighting the battalion took its share. On the 24th the Royal Fusiliers and Royal Welsh Fusiliers were holding some kopjes near Langerwachte under very heavy shell-fire and rifle-fire. On that day the Welsh Fusiliers lost Colonel Thorold, another officer, and 6 men killed, and 2 officers and 29 men wounded. The battalion was not with General Barton in the assault on Pieter's Hill at the eastern end of the position. In the fourteen days the battalion's losses were approximately 2 officers and 8 men killed, 2 officers and 60 men wounded.

Six officers were mentioned in General Buller's despatch of 30th March 1900, and 1 non-commissioned officer was recommended for the distinguished conduct medal.

In April 1900 the brigade was brought round to Cape Colony and concentrated at Kimberley. On 5th May the battle of Rooidam was fought, this battalion and the Royal Fusiliers being in the first line. The subsequent history of the Welsh Fusiliers is very similar to that of the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, and reference is made to the notes under that battalion.

For their work in the very arduous pursuit of De Wet, in August 1900, the Welsh Fusiliers as well as the Scots Fusiliers were highly praised by Lord Methuen.

At Frederickstad between 15th and 25th October 1900 General Barton had a lot of very severe fighting, in which the battalion again gained great praise from the general and Commander-in-Chief. In these actions the battalion had about 15 men killed and 3 officers and 30 men wounded.

Twelve officers and 19 non-commissioned officers and men were mentioned in Lord Roberts' final despatch.

During 1901 the battalion remained in the Western Transvaal and took part in the very successful operations of General Babington. In his despatch of 8th May 1901, para 13, Lord Kitchener refers to an attack which was made on 22nd April by 700 Boers under the personal command of General Delarey upon a convoy passing between General Babington's camp and Klerksdorp; "the escort, however, being well handled, repelled the attack, inflicting a loss upon the enemy of 12 killed and 6 wounded". The escort was mainly from this battalion, and Colonel Sir R Colleton and two other officers were commended in despatches for their excellent work. One month before, General Babington had captured a Boer convoy and several guns, and on that occasion Sergeant Darragh gained the distinguished conduct medal for, "on his own initiative, keeping a very superior force of the enemy at bay in a most gallant manner".

On 23rd May 1901 another convoy going to Ventersdorp was very heavily attacked, but the enemy was driven off. A detachment of the battalion again formed part of the escort, and lost 1 man killed and 1 officer and 11 men wounded. On this occasion the wounded officer, Captain Hay, and 5 non-cominissioned officers and men gained mention for exceptional gallantry.

Towards the close of 1901 the battalion occupied the northern portion of the line of blockhouses running from Potchefstroom to the Kroonstad district.

That the Royal Welsh Fusiliers added to their reputation in South Africa is beyond doubt, and the fact that they gained sixteen mentions during the later stages of the war, after Lord Roberts left South Africa, proves they did not grow stale. In Lord Kitchener's final or supplementary despatch the names of 4 officers and 3 non-commissioned officers were added."

Anglo Boer War - Royal Welsh Fusiliers

[Phill Lockett]

Hi Jerry

What a superb hand embroidered pith hemet flash.

With modified local embroidered flashes, would this have been routine for British units during this period and condoned by senior commanders? Or did they follow perscribed authorized regulations to make these flashes?

cheers

Phill

[Tinhat]

Great unusual piece Jerry.

[Jerry B]

Hi Jerry

What a superb hand embroidered pith hemet flash.

With modified local embroidered flashes, would this have been routine for British units during this period and condoned by senior commanders? Or did they follow proscribed authorized regulations to make these flashes?

cheers

Phill

Phil, examples from many regiments are known to exist but in period photos they appear uncommonly and I have yet to see a good studio portrait post card or cdv showing a RWF flash on a helmet, though there is an image of an officer with one, and an actual example on a fs helmet cover in the RWF museum in Caernarvon castle. The actual pith flashes are very uncommonly seen, though they do turn up. The issue pith flashes do start to be more commonly seen by WWI, with cdv images fairly common and these later officially manufactured examples do seem to be more commonly seen for sale or in collections, though still not abundant.

[Phill Lockett]

Thanks for sharing Jerry.

Authentic local theatre made cloth insignia in any war is hard to find let alone Boer war 123 years ago.

Such a great addition to your collection and of course your thorough research as always an excellent read on the Flash and history of 1st Bn RWF.

cheers

Phill

[Watchdog]

Hi Jerry thanks for starting a thread on an intriguing but little discussed topic, that's a nice example of an intriguing "peculiarity" in British cap badges.

@ Phil. To answer your question, these are very much a sort of hybrid in terms of how they originated and were worn.

As Jerry says many regiments used such badges but the actual specification seems to be often theatre and individual unit based.

Sometimes a usual regimental cap badge was fitted to the pugaree of the helmet. Sometimes it was a specific variation fitted with a longer slider. Other types were collar badges either as issued or altered to pin back fasteners.
Many units used a cloth version of the regimental cap badge or an appropriate "flash" in regimental colours.

The badge Jerry shows is a third "style" which were officially sanctioned and at least in the first instance were made from shoulder straps of the old scarlet jackets. These would be hand sewn into place on the pugaree by individual soldiers and depending on regiment there are slight variations in embroidery style and colour. This last difference usually being white thread for soldiers and yellow (nominally gold) for officers. This type along with the other types is also sometimes seen on the slouch hat.

At least one regiment, The Lancashire Fusiliers (during the Egypt emergency) used the same thing on the beret as shown on my 1953 dated Beret Industries Ltd example.

These could be a subject for collection in their own right and I am sure there are collectors who specialise.

It is as Jerry said it is difficult to find research imagery for these badges but regarding at least the Lancashire fusiliers beret badge there is a link to a very grainy period newsreel from Ismailia Egypt with shows an example at around 2mins 20 secs.

Ismalia

Note how the badge is worn just in front of the left ear almost like Scottish regiments. This is not an individual affectation. That is the way it was worn by all personnel of the battalion.

Regards

Mark

PS 2nd Pic is from the Imperial War Museum London website

[Jerry B]

post WWII Lancashire Fusiliers cloth beret badge in the style pf a pagri flash and a north staffs inter war pagri badge, from my collection. the version of the queen's badge I showed is I believe WWII slouch hat badge, by when they had become more common

[Jerry B]

I think I shared these cdv pictures before from my collection, but they are boer war, great war, post war...

[Watchdog]

Thanks Jerry,

More excellent examples that LF looks to be totally unused

My LF is the only cloth example I have and was of interest to me in particular because prior to the formation of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers LF would have been my local regiment and I have ancestors who served with 1/6 In Gallipoli and France during WWI. It is also interesting because it was worn as a beret badge for a very short time just before the RRF badge was issued. Now quite hard to find as a loose item they can now command quite high prices. Actually on a period dated beret with a hackle to match it becomes a bit of a unicorn! I was really luck to capture mine from a vet back home in Lancashire some years ago and from it's condition I think it could have been worn no more than a couple of times.

I do have a couple of metal pugaree / puggaree / pagri (Indian spelling I don't know so the varied soldiers phonetic versions will do) badges but I can't see an appropriate thread maybe there is a call for one.

Regards

Mark

[Jerry B]

I was lucky to pick up the LF beret badge, just saw it for sale.

here is another pith or slouch pagri flash for the Civil Service Rifles, I assume c. boer war/great war and an imperial yeomanry badge set, the metal parts are originals, the rosette is a copy