Naval History Forums

Hi,

This is my first post, I need help to find what uniform these men are wearing. It is very rare because i have never seen one like this before, any information would be grateful!

The sailors have a cap badges and the older active men have medals.
(see attachment)

Thanks,

Adam

Dear Adam,

Strictly semi-educated guesswork on my part, but I suspect that the officer seated on the right is from a different naval service (GB or USA would be my guess) than his counterpart on the left. The attending sailors appear to be wearing berets, which leads me to guess that they may be French.

FWIW

B

Hi,

Thank-you for you e-mail, the man on the top left was my great grandfather Edward Willis who was born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire (England). The berets are strange with an unknown cap badge and medal (man bottom right). Also, the uniforms could be not naval but they are very unusual and I have never seen this before.

Regards,

Adam Taylor

jet1357 wrote:Hi,

Thank-you for you e-mail, the man on the top left was my great grandfather Edward Willis who was born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire (England). The berets are strange with an unknown cap badge and medal (man bottom right). Also, the uniforms could be not naval but they are very unusual and I have never seen this before.

Regards,

Adam Taylor

Well, there goes my theory!

Have you considered searching the British National Archives to determine in what branch of service your great-grandfather served? His records should be available and I'm sure someone here on the forum can advise the procedure for ferreting them out.


B

It might be of help to know the date this photograph was taken.

It's not an RN uniform of any period. Might be a commercial shipping uniform perhaps, although I don't know where the tents fit in with that idea.

I ran across a number of pictures that looked vaguly similar form a boatsman's to a zeplin crew man's. You might also want to check out the uniforms of petty officers and such. Browser crashed or I'd have posted the links.

Your sure it's WWI period? or is it WWI plus or minus a decade or two?

Hi Everyone,

The uniform has been found and Edward Willis was in the National Fire Brigade Association in Woodstock.

They are wearing Lancer tunics common to local fire brigades and appear to be in the 1895 pattern National Fire Brigades Association, as it looks like red collar patches on their tunic. The man seated on the left is the officer in charge of the crew, probably called the First officer (he has naval rank markings equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy so is probably second in charge). The one on the right is probably the engineer as he has an engineers cap, he is wearing what looks like a NFBA long service medal with clasp so he has done at least 30 years service, both have chrome plated epaulettes which makes them officers as well.
They appear to be at a competition which places the time between 1895 and 1914 and then he fought during the First World War.

Any information on the National Fire Brigade Association mainly in Woodstock would be gratful.

Adam

This might sound like a statement of the obvious - perhaps a Google search?