Dockyard working rig 1920s?

[Goatman]

Hi,

@Ravers @supermatelot @Yokel

quick question for those who may know the facts

(As opposed to those of us who think we can remember from a book we read many years ago!)

What year did the RN switch from dark blue caps with detachable white covers, to standard white lids?

I think it was in 1950s but need to nail the exact year please?

Thanks

Goats
( erstwhile A/LRO(T) of this parish - HMS President 1982 -1991 )

 

[Guns]

You'd be better posting this on Rum Ration. There will be cabbage smelling piss stained old sweats who will regale you with stories of how it was better in their day and how they had to change to white caps which lead to the downfall of the Empire

 

[Tomasz Krachanaker]

1956

 

[dockers]

THE_INTRODUCTION_OF_WHITE_PLASTIC_CAPS_IN_THE_NAVY

@Goatman This article suggests 1956.

 

[Provost]

I've occasionally wondered what Lord Kitchener's white hat was all about.
Never seen anyone outside of the RAFP wear anything like it.

 

[AULD_SWEAT]

You'd be better posting this on Rum Ration. There will be cabbage smelling piss stained old sweats who will regale you with stories of how it was better in their day and how they had to change to white caps which lead to the downfall of the Empire

Oi.

 

[Goatman]

You'd be better posting this on Rum Ration. There will be diesel smelling piss stained old submariners who will regale you with stories of how it was better in their day and how they had to change to white caps which lead to the downfall of the Empire

FNC

@dockers - bingo. Thanks

Movie related question....they'll ignore reality anyway but at least I'll be sure of my ground.

And what Godfrey in his dit refers to as 'Tidily' might be more familiar to some old and bold as

' Tiddly' - as in

'Is this bloody hat okay? '

'Yeah, you look tiddly wings - no worries'

 

[seaweed]

1956

Correct. The last winter in blue hats was 1955-6. Allegedly the change to plastic was ordered by Lord M after seeing the blanco streaming down the faces and clothes of the RN street liners at the Coronation.

Mind you, the connection between the qn & the actual thread title eludes me.

 

[DaManBugs]

Correct. The last winter in blue hats was 1955-6. Allegedly the change to plastic was ordered by Lord M after seeing the blanco streaming down the faces and clothes of the RN street liners at the Coronation.

What? They blancoed their titfers? You learn something new every day on ARRSE.

MsG

 

[Tomasz Krachanaker]

Correct. The last winter in blue hats was 1955-6. Allegedly the change to plastic was ordered by Lord M after seeing the blanco streaming down the faces and clothes of the RN street liners at the Coronation.

I was in a little later than this, I did however use cap covers however they were boiled clean with a "blue bag" rinse. Never allowed on Divisions but did look smart and extended the life of the cap.
I don't know of anyone ever using blanco to whiten a cap cover and if the story is true why didn't they introduce plastic webbing? I remember doing a Royal Guard in the pissing rain, it cost lot to keep sending my No 1s to the cleaners to get rid of the "dap whitener".
Sorry @Guns for the Senior moment. If you weren't there etc.

 

[Goatman]

Mind you, the connection between the qn & the actual thread title eludes me.

I had an enquiry from a fillum company about dockyard practice in the 1920s....even I am not that old but I knew somebody on here would come up with a dit...and Dockers obliged, thanks.

And I used toothpaste on my white plastic cap....the entire Guard smelled of Macleans..... but we were tiddly.

 

[Provost]

And I used toothpaste on my white plastic cap....the entire Guard smelled of Macleans..... but we were tiddly.

Poofs. Any guard worth its salt in BAOR would have been entirely arseholed.

 

[BuckFelize]

I've occasionally wondered what Lord Kitchener's white hat was all about. Never seen anyone outside of the RAFP wear anything like it.

Quite common pre-WW1 in the tropics. Now only seen being sported by SMIGs.

 

[Jack_Prior]

About Kitchener (of Khartoum), excuse further thread drift, he wasn't alone in wearing a white cap at the time. The cartoonist Alfred Leete's famous Kitchener image wasn't entirely an invention. Leete's poster first appeared on the front cover of London Opinion magazine - taken over by Men Only in 1954 - on September 5th, 1914 but its supposedly vital influence on recruitment has been called a myth. Kitchener's South African service dress cap in 1901 looks similar.

Titled and distinguished generals like Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, Sir Ian Hamilton (photographed in various outrageous Titfers), and Sir Charles C. Monro, for instance, all wore white caps sometimes in photographs and in studio portraits. Kitchener certainly did. They're all linked by African service and by white cloth foreign service helmets (as worn by Lord "Bobs" Roberts).

 

[Provost]

Titled and distinguished generals like Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, Sir Ian Hamilton (photographed in various outrageous Titfers), and Sir Charles C. Monro, for instance, all wore white caps sometimes in photographs and in studio portraits. Kitchener certainly did. They're all linked by African service and by white cloth foreign service helmets (as worn by Lord "Bobs" Roberts).

Thanks for that. However, your answer almost suggests that it was something of an affectation rather than an order of dress.

 

[Jack_Prior]

Thanks for that. However, your answer almost suggests that it was something of an affectation rather than an order of dress.

Agreed; fashion, elitism and affectations.