20th Century Formation Signs

[dag]

My little collection of British (Scottish units) Formation Signs (Formation Badges). A few date to WWII.

 

[dag]

And labels for these cloth badges:

 

 

[Allan H.]

In case you don't know already, your "Scotland" patch is actually a Royal Air Force nationaity title.

 

Allan

[dag]

In case you don't know already, your "Scotland" patch is actually a Royal Air Force nationaity title.

 

Allan

 

Thanks for that information. I did not know that. Several years ago I picked this one up (blue lettering) and another (red lettering) separately. I did not know anything about these, but thought they made a good "label" for a few of my Scotland militaria displays. I thought they were Home Guard or something like that, glad to now know they are RAF.

 

Do you happen to know if the lettering color has any particular meaning (red versus blue)?

[dag]

Here are my two "Scotland" patches.

 

[patches]

Interesting, the one with the Red we suppose would be for the Royal Navy, But curious, when would the SCOTLAND Tab be worn, or more to the point, why? considering Scotland is not a really a separate country or a Commonwealth/Dominion, and is part of Great Britain, if there is a SCOTLAND tab, is there a WALES or NORTHERN IRELAND one? And if they wore them, then stands to reason Scots serving in the Army would have a SCOTLAND tab too, both the Scots Tribal Regiments and those Scots serving in other non Scots Regiments and other the Combat Arms, Support Arms, IE Royal Artillery, The Catering Corps etc etc etc, but never seen a SCOTLAND tab worn by them.

 

In example a photo of Harbourne MacKay Stephen, a Scots in the RAF a Battle of Britain notable.

 

[patches]

 

And one more no tab seen, Flight Lieutenant Angus MacLeod, Glasgow, (pictured here with his family). Navigator on a Mosquito, downed off the coast of The Netherlands in 1944, I think the fall, November, listed MIA along with his pilot, his remains where discovered by locals from the village of Zoutelande as it came washed ashore and buried him there where he's still is, the Government provided a tombstone after the war .

 

 

(no idea on pilot, one Flight Lieutenant Basil J. Brachi, presumably he went down under the waves with the ship, and MacLeod was thrown clear in the crash) ,

[Allan H.]

There are dozens and dozens of nationality tabs worn by those serving in the RAF and the Air Forces of the commonwealth countries as well. To answer your question about nationality titles Patches, yes, N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales titles all exist. There are other possessions and former possessions that also exist, like Kenya, South Africa, Br(itish) Honduras, Jamaica, Bahamas, Bermuda, B(ritish) W(est) Indies, and Hong Kong just to name a few.

 

The only nationality titles that I recall on British army BDs were the Canadian titles worn in conjunction with British formation signs etc. Obviously, Poles wearing British BD wore their own nationality titles and insignia.

 

I took the attached photo from the following website where you can read more about nationality titles.

 

https://samilhistory.com/tag/battle-of-britain/page/2/

 

Allan

[patches]

Thanks for the addition Allan, interestingly the RN used titles to for those serving from exile countries, commonwealth too I suppose, the Army too, the Norwegians and their NORGE tab, the Czechs, The Dutch etc. Danes for instance, they did not form a separate unit of there own in the war, didn't have enough guys, but seems some numbers of former Danish soldiers that manage to escape to England as well as Danes living in England where found serving in one or more of the battalions of the Buffs, this cause the King of Denmark was the Colonel and Chief of the Regiment. however in this case don't know if a DENMARK tab was worn by those guys in the Buffs.

[dag]

Thanks to patches & Alan H. for their replies/information. I have learned a lot about the "Scotland" patches I have, and now know what to call them - Nationality Titles, with the blue for RAF and red (possibly) for RN.

 

Will have to keep my eye out for a curved one, implying officer based on Alan's link.

 

Thanks again,

David

[Gunslinger]

Officers version ST were hand embroidered & Enlisted version ST were machine embroidered.

 

CDub