Royal Welsh Fusiliers officers SD tunic 1943 dated

[Jerry B]

Just bought this one from Ebay from a seller in S. Wales, an officers SD tunic for the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. It has a tailors label inside with the date July 1943 and the officers name and rank, Captain JR Williams, it has its buttons and rank pips, but appears to be missing its OSD collar dogs, but they should hopefully not be too expensive to replace. Most importantly to me, it still has its Black Ribbon Flash attached to the rear of the collar, which was a special dress distinction unique to the RWF and dates from 1834 when they were the 23rd regiment of foot (RWF).

They were awarded this honour by permission of the King and are the only British army regiment to wear them.


My next door neighbor used to be the Colonel In Chief of the Regiment and as it is from a Welsh regiment and dates to WWII I am very pleased to get this tunic and I look forward to its arrival.

These are the sellers pics and I'll post some more when it arrives.

By a strange coincidence, I also purchased a Gloucester Regiment back badge, another of the unique forms of dress worn by British regiments as they were the only regiment allowed to wear a badge on the back of their caps as well as that worn on the front. The sellers pic and I'll post some more when it arrives

[Jerry B]

Just bought a facing pair of collar dogs for the tunic.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Nice one Jerry.

Cheers, Ade.

[Jerry B]

Thanks Ade.

I am very pleased to get this tunic and trawling through a number of dealer sites I found two pairs for dogs for sale, one of which seemed a bit steep but I continued looking and found another dealer with a set for significantly less so I bought that set.

[asterperious]

Very nice, I have a WW I RWF jacket too. Nicely done, they have a great history.

[Jerry B]

Very nice, I have a WW I RWF jacket too. Nicely done, they have a great history.

Thanks and I would really like to see some pictures of your WWI tunic, when they were renowned for their literature almost as much as for their frontline experiences. The list of members of the regiment from that period read like a who's who of WWI literary greats. I would love to add a WWI tunic from the RWF to my collection. The neighbor I mentioned who was at one time the Colonel in Chief of the regiment has edited a book on the subject, "Up to Mametz and Beyond” by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, edited and annotated by Jonathon Riley. Published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd. An excellent republishing of Griffith's moving account of his WWI experiences.

I have seen your collection but a few detail shots of the tunic would be greatly appreciated and any known history with it.

[asterperious]

I'll get some for you tonight, unnamed IIRC. I know what you mean about the literary strengths of the unit - I've read all I could lay my hands on. Have you read Capt. Dunn's "The War the Infantry Knew" ? He was a RWF officer and in the thick of it for most of the war from 1915 onward. There is also the somewhat recent movie "Regeneration" about Sasson and Graves convalescing in Lossiemouth? good movie Regeneration (1997 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Jerry B]

I've not read the book you mention, but I have seen regeneration.

[Jerry B]

It arrived very quickly, thanks to the seller. Just waiting for the dogs to arrive. A nice bonus IMO is that it is the austerity version of the SD tunic, introduced as a wartime economy measure, so it has no pleats on the upper pockets and the lower pockets have no buttons and are of the slash type rather than the expanding bellow type seen or pre or early war tunics and then introduced in the postwar period.

[Jerry B]

I was having another look at this today and noticed some writing on the inside lining which appears to say,

"Mai Williams
HQ30 Mil S
HQ 30 Corps

It is much easier to read in the hand than my camera will capture and looking at it again it might read;

Little capitol A Maj, meaning acting Major Williams?