Help identifying uniform and unit

I'm hoping forum members can help. My gran recently died and I've been going through her old photographs and came across this one.



We're pretty sure he's a relative but no-one knows who he is! So I'm hoping that if I can ID his unit that might narrow things down.

Obviously he's wearing a kilt - which suggests a kilted regiment. But it could be Canadian or British, given family tree. The kilt and tam o'shanter, and dark (red?) hackle make me think Black Watch but the cap badge isn't visible. He has a crossed-axes arm badge - not sure what those symbolise. I don't know when the photo was taken but it appears to have been taken in Dundee at the Victory Studio, 41 High Street. Would the style of battledress give a date before which it couldn't have been taken?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Ian

 

Hello Ian
I would suggest the Crossed Axes above his stripes is
a Pioneer trade badge.

 

Ideally you would not see a cap badge on a Black Watch bonnet as the red hackle was instead of the badge. So, a Corporal Pioneer in the Black Watch - and in his finest there. He is wearing a 1937 pattern BD jacket - with concealed buttons - rather than the 'economy' 1940 pattern with buttons on show, but that does not necessarily prove anything as 37 pattern jackets were sought after to either make you look like an old sweat, or smarter.

 

Thank Ulutiram69, I think you're right on the pioneer badge.

And thanks, too, Staffsyeoman. So the photo is post 1937 and possible pre-1940 (but could be later).

Which makes me think. Assuming it was nearer the start of that period, my great-uncle was a pre-war regular. He was my gran's brother-in-law. And he was a corporal before the outbreak of war in 1939. The only problem with that theory is that he was RASC. But we has recruited in Perth, his enlistment papers describing it as the The Black Watch recruiting area. Is there a possibility that this is him but that, despite being RASC, he wore the kilt?

I suspect the answer is "no" but on the basis that there are no daft questions, I'll ask anyway!

Cheers

Ian

 

That is not a photograph of any soldier in the RASC. The RASC did not wear kilts, and any Black Watch soldier would have been... not chuffed... to see an RASC wearing their headgear.

 

Maybe GreatUncle was demobed and later joined a Black Watch (TA) in Dundee. I dont understand why an RASC soldier's enlistment papers would mention the Black Watch recruiting area. Are you sure he was RASC and not ASC?

I meant GSC ( General Service Corps) not ASC

 

This chap is most definitely Black watch. His tartan is Black Watch and the hackle and TOS are correct.

If he was post-war, I would have thought that he would have add some medal ribbons.

FdeP

 

With apologoes for the delay in responding (I killed my PC by flashing the BIOS), in answer to Owen, this thread contains a lot of the information I have on my great uncle - http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/27461-rascramc-great-uncle/.

His army number was T/2027582. The reference to the "Black Watch Recruiting Zone" refers to a stamp on his army form B.271. I am unsure why the form also lists him as RE unless he was a territorial or something before signing on as a regular.

I am now pretty sure this photo is not of my great uncle. Who he is, however, is still a mystery.

 

Tayside and fife have always been recruitment areas for the black watch and still are to this day

As for the kilt it's not 100% but I would say its black watch as well (few scots regiments had close colours)

The red hackle is a battle honour for the black watch capturing two French cannons in Flanders years before the First World War and also for the simple fact any of the other scottish regiments the soldiers wore the glengarry not the TOS