When I joined BRNC Dartmouth in September 1973 we were issued with RN battledress with king's buttons.

I joined G.B. Aiurways in 1994. The cap badge was that of the Bland Shipping Company, and the wings had the same emblem in the middle.

:p

They were the one's we rejected in 1967 :D

As I recall, the RAF went over to staybrite buttons around 1968, certainly I wore brass buttons for my first few years of service from 1964. What always puzzled me when I was dealing in militaria was that king's crown anodised buttons used to turn up quite frequently, even though as far as I know these were never worn in service. Any ideas?

I'd like to meet the bugger who carefully removed the badge from my SD cap when it was hanging on its usual peg in the mess at Kai Tak. After donning my cap I strolled down to the office where I was met by my doughty RAF Regiment sergeant

"Excuse me sir, but did you check in the mirror before leaving the mess this morning?" :eek:

Tankertrashnav wrote: We were still polishing brass buttons and picking the duraglit cack out of the crowns in 1969 at RAFC. Then came 'low dome' staybrite buttons, but they were soon replaced by the current 'high dome' version.

Duraglit?????????????

We Direct Entry scruffs used Brasso.!!!

Clearing out the holes in the belt buckles with a pipe cleaner kept us busy.

Clearing out the holes in the belt buckles with a pipe cleaner kept us busy.

We were assured that it was all 'character building'!

Not sure about the switch from KGVI to QE2 but around mid 60s we all had to change buttons on No1s and Great Coats to high dome. The problem was No1 button holes had been sized for the earlier slimmer button. There was no question of not changing it was a direct order.

I remember many aircrew with WW2 medals. They all sported QE2 crowns.

The crown used to "top" the cap badge which began this thread was known as the "Naval crown" or sometimes the Tudor Naval crown. It featured alternating prows and sterns of wooden sailing ships, and there seem to have been several versions. It was often used on ship's badges I believe (including RN?). There was (very much later) an aviation crown (I seem to recall it MAY have been described as the "Adastral Crown" or something similar), which features birds wings instead of the ship decorations. This is still used for semi-governmental organisations, and I notice it is also used for the badge of the RNZAF Museum (under governorship of a Trust Board), so perhaps also the RAF Museum? Quite hard to find out about these lesser known crowns, particularly if you do not know what they are called. And these days, just to make it even more difficult, they are not "Royal" in any sense. Sovereigns never wore them, so far as I know, and they possibly never even exited as actual objects, being purely symbolic crowns. Any further enlightenment from the more knowledgeable who infest this forum welcomed!

dd310, your post and indeed this thread is a classic example of the power of pprune. I am now the wiser thanks to you (and as ever to Google!). The aviation crown you mention is not the Adastral but the Astral Crown (Google politely asking if I meant the latter, of course I did!).

Not only is there a Naval Crown and an Astral Crown, the Army has its own too, the Camp Crown!

You boy, did I hear tittering?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_crown