Some of us were far more adjacent to him!

The reason why we wear/wore blue has got bugger all to to do with the colour of the sky.

HMG was in possession of a huge amount of blue serge which had been made for the Czar's Guard. It couldn't be delivered due to local difficulties at the time, despite having been paid for, so the stuff was available pretty much buckshee and was consequently imposed upon the upstart service.

...also not true. About 1/6th. Some 55,000 in the RNAS and 290,000 in the RFC if I recall correctly?

Cazalet

The original blue was somewhat different to what we ended up with - luckily!

http://www.britairforce.com/images/r..._1918_lb_a.jpg

And also a brown one for a while as well

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/15...g?v=1505557787

To detract from all the misery at the moment; another good news story this week after the news of the royal engagement.
The 100 year experiment is shortly to draw to a close with a year of celebrations all round.
Looking forward to wishing my RAF chums bon anniversaire!

Yup. That's the colour, jRaven.

The shape shifted a bit, but not much.

The drill was based on Pongo stuff. Though the army limit of three steps sidewards escaped the new drill manual, so we got got our unfortunate nickname.

Ahhhh, always follow the money.

A big all-round congratulations.

Early RAF uniforms are very interesting, with several changes in the first year or two of its existence. At one stage officer rank was indicated by bars on the cap. Army officer ranks were used until 1919 I believe, and I have certainly seen WW1 medals named to a Lieutenant RAF (not RFC). I also once had a George V LS&GC named to a Sergeant Major, RAF - not sure how long that rank lasted until it was replaced by WO 1 and 2.

On the subject of officer ranks one set of rank names which was proposed was this rather fanciful list - Ensign, Lieutenant, Flight-Leader, Squadron-Leader, Reeve, Banneret, Fourth-Ardian, Third-Ardian, Second-Ardian, Ardian, Air Marshal. Apparently 'ardian' means "bird leader' in Gaelic!

Any retired Reeves or Bannerets on here? ;)

Presumably why the officers got the Naval rank titles and everyone else the Army's.

Superb uniform shots above. I have a button off my grandfather's RFC uniform, only issued for what, about 4 years?

People celebrate their birthday, not their moment of conception.....

The Order in Council was finally signed on 22nd March 1918.

Archive Material

The only way I see that happening is if said Typhoon was stationary on a boat as it travelled up the river.....

I understood it was due to the grease applied to the exposed ferrous parts of embarked aircraft being known by the sailors as 'crabfat'.

Both credible stories.

Or perhaps due to the fact that RAF personnel embarked aboard the RN's finest always walked sideways, back to the bulkhead!

I heard they are going to have a full 5 hour airshow featuring the RAF... but I am buggered if I know what they will pad out the remaining 4 hours 50 minutes of the airshow with..

I mean you could celebrate both, unless you feel you should only enjoy yourself once a year?

NL - Sad to see such cynicism in one so young but you may just be correct.....

Even scarcer are the RNAS buttons which followed the naval pattern with the rope around the rim. I believe these were sometimes worn on early RAF uniforms, although not on the examples illustrated by iRaven above.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rn...w=1366&bih=662