Wensleydale.
With respect, perhaps I should have quoted my own regiment :the 3rd East Anglian Regt (Bedfordshire Hertfordshire and Essex _The Pompadours_ 16th/44th of Foot whose quick march was La Mandolinata or "souvenirs from Rome" ) The metal "A"s for RAuxAf officers uniforms still lost their pins and airmen sewed their cloth ones on during the 6 years that I was an Auggie.

And there again they might have sung "Balls to Mr Banglestein"!

Dougie M. All the fours mate! Joined the Pompadours in 64 in Berlin!

Wensleydale: What a spoilsport you are!! Now I can mention that the 2 officers could not have been using Webley Mk 6 .455" revolvers either - as they hadn't been invented then!!!:8

Well it took me 20 years to get them all - started when I found an "8th" button in a job lot I bought. Actually there is always a certain sadness in completing a collection - for the true collector, as opposed to investor, the fun is in the finding, not owning. Still, I'm now trying to get all the OTC buttons and I'm pretty sure that collection will still be incomplete when I shuffle off.

Not unique, by the way, I have seen a few complete sets come up for auction over the years.

TTN,

Why not sew them all on a jacket, adopt a cockney accent and you could pretend to be a Pearly King (certainly not a Pearly Queen - of course!!!!!!!).

You could also collect Army stable belts.

O-D

.... and despite the excellent part played by Nigel Green, Colour Sgt. Bourne was only 23 at the time of Rorke's Drift.:E

Never mind Baker and Caine, Nigel Green has always been the star of Zulu in my mind. Here he is delivering one of the best lines in British film history

https://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=....0.fRRafj74JL0

Old Duffer - now there's a thought, but I may just leave the pre 1881 buttons in their frame and use up some of the hundreds of more run of the mill buttons I have in boxes cluttering up my office.

TTN you being a ’buttons man' I thought it would have been 'fasten your button laddie, officer on parade'
Or something along those lines.

and Csgt Bourne's rank badge is wrong of course.

I did see that one wag had commented about the film that "the Zulus were shown using the Mk2D assegai and yet they used only the Mk2B at Rorkes Drift".

I do so agree. British regular infantry cap badges August 1914 ......... tick
Wartime economy ditto 1916 .........................................................tic k

And the last few to get are not always the rarest or the most expensive.

I recently completed the shoulder title set for the 1914 cap badges.

Fortunately the quest for British Army military manuals from c. 1820 to 1920 will never be complete, even though I started that mania in 1980. Musketry Training 1914 cost all of £2 then. King's Regs 1914 was very expensive, at £5. Dream on.

Impressive badge collection LB - would look nice beside my framed regular infantry buttons of World War One!

Your mention of old prices reminded me of a dear friend (now deceased) who told me he once bought a vast collection of those composite shoulder titles (T RE WESSEX sort of thing). He said "I had to pay five bob each for them but the T RFC HANTS title cost me seven and six! (worn by personnel from Farnborough).

Mind you that was around 50 years ago

goudie - yes I hadn't thought of that one. Some other notable NCO/WO performances from Richard Attenborough - I'm quite sure many "real" NCOs modelled their parade ground voice on his.

Harry Andrews in The Hill.

Yes that was a terrific performance. Also a WO but a much kindlier one in Ice Cold in Alex, just about my favourite war film.

Yes we are wandering a long way from badges, but what good is Jet Blast without thread drift?

The prison riot scene when Harry Andrews was challenged on who he would shoot. 'Every seventh man' he replied with absolute conviction. That shut them up! Brilliant film.

I recall that at the Towers in the 60s included "Aid to the Civil Power" in the syllabus. Amongst the strictures was "Never shoot over their heads, shoot to kill the ring leader(s)"

My father was gifted a Mk6 many years back by a fellow military association member. When we received it, it was still packed in grease and wrapped in calico and with an original holster. The revolver belonged to his father who was killed in WW1 and was still in the original packaged state as it was given to the family when it was recovered from the battlefield. We returned it to working state and had a good few years of recreational use from it. It has now been donated to the MOTH museum.

:D

If only pprune had a rep system....

Wrong parachutist badge
 

How many are there ? I only know of 2 : a chute supporting a cylindrical container, worn on the right cuff by volunteer rescue teams, and the full para wings worn by every body else that is entitled.
Cafe solo