WW2 Canadian 2nd Division - Patch Collection

[Seaforth72]

I have my father's 1943 Essex Scottish battledress uniforms with original embroidered "barrel" shaped shoulder titles. He joined them as a reinforcement officer to replace a Dieppe casualty. He was later attached to No. 4 Commando at Freddy Tilston's suggestion (Freddy later won a VC) until wounded and sent back to Canada.

Both his BD blouses and his summer cutaway tunic have the plain 2 CID patches. The CII gold wire one he had, but only wore on his Service Dress tunic as far as I know. I have one patch that he kept but as he went back into the army post-war, the SD tunic that I have is from a later time period.

I also have an original 1950s-1960s Black Watch named battledress blouse with the Black Watch "barrel" patches.

If desired I can photograph any of these. I cannot yet post photos on this forum being a FNG so send me a Private Message if you want some pictures.

Colin

Hi Grizzly,

Thank you for your detailed reply. I really enjoy learning new things about this area of my collecting as there is not a great amount of literature out there. I am really trying to collect as many examples as possible including the worsted slip-ons.

Now, maybe you can clarify a few things for me. First, you stated that most of the barrel patches are post-war. Is there a way to tell the difference between a war time and post war example - for instance I thought the war time patches were made of melton with black backs, while the post war patches were made of felt and sometimes had a cheese cloth like backing? Also what exactly is a starch back? I know they have a starch/glue backing, but where were they made and when?

I will try and post a pic of the back of some of my examples, including some ones that are not pictured that are definitely post war. Also from personal observation, many of the post war examples in my collection seem to be a slightly rounder shorter barrel than my wartime ones.

Ritchie.

[Grizzly]

Hello Ritchie, From the back of the Calg H title, it looks wartime era. Any chance of a pic of the front?

[ritchie4]

Here is the front of the Calgary Highlanders title

13128.jpg

[Grizzly]

Looks like a good SWW title.