Anyone know what the badge in this photo is?

Discussion in 'Searching for Someone & Military Genealogy' started by DOM, Aug 21, 2018.

  1. DOM

    DOM Member

    Hi All,

    I'm trying to figure out which regiment my great uncle was in. I know my granddad and 2 of the other brothers were in the Beds & Herts 1st and 3rd Batt. Anyone have any idea what the badge on his pocket is? I've tried searching online but I'm having no luck.

    BTW the back of the photo is dated 7th July1945, Athens.

    Michael John O'Mahony in uniform.jpeg
     
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  2. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

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  3. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

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  4. DOM

    DOM Member

  5. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Fabulous spot there Alistair.
     
  6. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    Do you have any info and pictures of your relatives that were in the Beds and Herts? My grandad was 2nd Battalion 33-37 then 1st Battalion 37-44.

    Alex
     
  7. DOM

    DOM Member

    Hi Alex, I do have quiet a bit on the Beds and Herts movements from WW2. Particularly for the 1st Battalion. Quiet a bit of it has come from here or contacts on here. My granddad was in the Motor Transport section and I have a number of photos of that section. If you send me on a photo for comparison I can have a look through my collection to see if there are any matches. I also got a biography from a person in here. It was written by his granddad that was also in the Beds and Herts and it has a good bit of detail about what they were up to in Italy after moving on from Gibraltar. I have some photo's titled "Invasion North Africa" that I can't match up to my granddad service record, which is very odd. But they are pictures of US soldiers landing on a beach & pictures of an armada of ships with US officers on deck. Send me a direct message with your email and I will send on the bio + any other bits I have.
     
  8. Staffsyeoman

    Staffsyeoman Member

    Coming a little late to this - no disagreement that it's the British Military Mission to Greece but it is more usually found as a pocket fob suspended from a shirt/jacket button. The others I've seen like this were stitched to battledress sleeves, so an interesting variation.
     
  9. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    4 Inf Div were sent to Greece in Sep 44. 2 Beds & Herts went with them as part of 10 Inf Bde.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  10. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    Hi.
    Just received your email. Thanks very much, I’ll spend some time reading it!
    The account you sent me was from the 1st Herts. The Beds and Herts (1st and 2nd battalion) were the regular units.

    T.A units but brought up to regular strength were:
    1st Herts
    2nd Herts
    5th Beds and Herts

    So if things don’t match up with your grandads service record it’s probably due to a mix up between the different units ( with very similar names)

    Alex
     
  11. DOM

    DOM Member

    Thanks guys.

    Frank, thanks for the info. I suspect my great uncle may have also been in the Bed & Herts since his other 3 brothers were. I am not in touch with any of his descendants so I've no idea where he served apart from the badge in the above photo. I have 4 photos of this guy in uniform but that is the only one where I can see a badge.
     
  12. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Are his medals on your avatar?

    Frank
     
  13. DOM

    DOM Member

    Hi Frank
    The medals in my avatar are my granddad's and they match up to his service record and photo collection from Gibraltar, Palestine and Egypt. The only anomaly in his collection of photos are a group called north Africa Invasion. There is no record of him being involve in Operation Torch but yet I have photos like these among the many from the various places he served. The only place he served where he didn't take photos was in Italy.

    Invasion North Africa 1.jpeg Invasion North Africa 2.jpeg
     
  14. jimbop

    jimbop Banned

    hi alex,
    my dad was in the beds n herts 31-36.
    31-33 2nd batt
    33-36 1st batt
    seemed my ol man and your grandad swapped places! lol

    jim.
     
  15. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    Do you realise the medals - as displayed in your avatar - are not in the correct order of wear?

    Steve
     
  16. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  17. DOM

    DOM Member

    Yes I am aware that they are not in order. I got to see these medals only once so I laid them out and took a picture along with copying all the photos from his collection. They are all stored away in my aunties home. There are only a few people in my extended family that have seen these and they have never left her home. So order was not a priority to me at the time of taking the photo.

    My granddad and his 3 brothers were from the south of Ireland. They were part of an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 Irish citizens that joined the British army during WW2 compares to over 210,000 in WW1. My family have always been proud of their service but politically in Ireland it wasn't the sort of thing you talked about in public. Thankfully times have changed and their service and that of my great grandparents during WW1 can now be spoken about with pride.
     
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  18. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    Thanks for answering my point in your Para 1.

    I hadn’t touched on the issues in your Para 2 (don’t think anyone else had either?) so unsure where your comments come from........I’m not making a “political” point as I have an Irish heritage from South Armagh (in the north of Ireland).

    Steve
     
  19. DOM

    DOM Member

    I know you weren't making a political pointand I wasn't making any sort of accusation.

    The second paragraph is really just an explanation as to why the medals weren't shown that much and why I got only 1 opportunity to see them. My aunt is from that generation where it wouldn't have been seen in the best light to be showing these, but as I said the times have changed and there is now talk of doing a big family day, inviting the extended family around so that everyone can see the medals belonging to my granddad and great granddad's.
     
  20. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Thanks for the further clarification.

    Hope that the family get together goes well.

    I traced descendants of my Irish born great aunt to Canada about 5 years ago and was invited over to meet the descendants of my mother's cousins.

    As you can imagine I took a lot of family photographs to share and on meeting some of the cousins one commented that she wished she'd brought some of her mother's photographs.

    She popped home and returned with a box of photographs. I saw she had a Princess Mary Xmas 1914 box but initially paid it no heed - concentrating on the photographs.

    It was only when I gave it a second look that I noticed it was engraved with my gf name, number and Regiment and it dawned on me he'd sent it to his sister as a Xmas present and it been had passed down through her family.

    You could've knocked me down with a feather when I was given the Xmas box at the end of the evening.

    The point of my retelling the story is that you never know what might turn up - either family oral history or physical heirlooms - when the family get together.

    Steve
     
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