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Hi All

I'm hoping someone may be able to assist.
I have a photo of my Grandad take c1930's in a military uniform. It appears to be a dress uniform to me, but I could very well be wrong. The pic was taken in the UK, possible Surrey.

To me it looks a lot like the Royal Canadian Mounties uniform in that he is wearing britches, boots with spurs, long gloves and a campaign hat.

Anyone have a clue as to what service it might be.

I am going to attempt to attach a head shot c@#t I can get the pic re-scanned.

Many thanks

ALison

I would hazzard a guess at the RCMP

If you can post a better photo of either the cap badge (which is hidden here) or a close up of the collar badge which is in full view we should be able to solve the mystery for you.

Thanks. Will be attempting a fresh scan tomorrow I hope. This one was done about 10 years ago, so I'm hoping the resolution is better now.

Anyone know if the RCMP were ever in the UK. I have another pic with a group of men same uniform on parade in England too.


ALison

It's not RCMP both the cap badge and collar brass are wrong.
Just comparing the uniform to that of my uncle who was RCMP from 1948 on.

Ok well The new scanned image is to big to upload at 1400dpi so trying again as 3 smaller images just of the badges.

If I can I will also attach a group shot and full length uniform one.

Thanks

group shot

Amazing what you can find out on t'internet in such a quick time.... I posted your query on the British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum (no, I'd never heard of it either till I Googled...)

It seems your grandad was a paramilitary....!! He's wearing the uniform of The Legion of Frontiersmen.

The Wikipedia entry for this lot seems to have been tampered with slightly, but the following extract gives you the idea...

The Legion of Frontiersmen is a patriotic paramilitary organisation formed in Britain in 1905 by Roger Pocock, a former Constable with the North-West Mounted Police and Boer War veteran, with its roots firmly set in another era - though some would say on another planet entirely, to bolster the defensive capacity of the British Empire. Prompted by pre-war fears of an impending invasion of Britain, the organisation was founded as a field intelligence corps on a romanticised conception of the "frontier" and imperial idealism. Headquartered in London, branches of the Legion of Frontiersmen were formed throughout the empire to prepare patriots for war and to foster vigilance in peacetime. Despite persistent efforts, the Legion never achieved more than sporadic and tenuous official recognition, but many[citation needed] of its members enlisted at the onset of the First World War. Wartime casualties devastated the Legion of Frontiersmen[citation needed], and except for a brief resurgence in the interwar period, a series of schisms and sectarianism prevented attempts to reinvigorate the movement. Various Legion of Frontiersmen groups still exist throughout the Commonwealth, but as a whole, it has been unable to define its niche in the post-imperial world.

All Legion members were volunteers. In the late 1930s, the Legion of Frontiersmen was formally affiliated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but after a schism split the Canadian Frontiersmen, the RCMP severed formal ties. Still without any formal recognition, Frontiersmen enlisted individually in the Second World War.

Here's a picture of similarly outfitted Frontiersmen from the Guelph police archives.... (Guelph is a town in Ontario, Canada.... every day's a school day.... )
http://www.guelphpolice.com/assets/Arch ... naires.jpg


And it seems our happy Frontiersmen are still going strong.... though they're probably more akin to fellas that join the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes than anything resembling quite so militaristic an organisation as their original concept aimed for
http://www.legion-of-frontiersmen.net/


They still have badges of rank (british army pattern) and the whole works too! Including para wings, commando badges and jungle survival badges... Want one...........
http://www.legion-of-frontiersmen.net/



Don't thank me.... thank t'internet.....

Wow thanks Sportbilly. I thought I was quite good at searching the net, but you certainly kicked by butt finding that. I am so grateful.
A whole section of his life that not even my mother knew about.

Thanks again

Alison

If you look REALLY closely you might just see your grandad on this march past

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=4745
Quite a few of them on parade in London

...Or in this one (play the Pathe newsreel clip at 'full screen' so you can see the timing and forward to the 8 minute point)
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=7150

Thank you again Sportbilly.
I have seen the first one and several of the others, but missed the second one, and I fairly confident I have spotted him in it, so am over the moon.

Have also emailed the Frontiersmen website, to see what records they hold, no response yet though.