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Rifles General Officers: Black Buttons/Brass Buttons?

RP578

LE
This is a bit of an esoteric one and apropos of nothing more than my idle curiosity, but would be interested if anyone actually knows.

When an officer becomes a 'Red Tab', (s)he of course becomes "late" of their Regt/Corps, but I'd always assumed that they kept the uniform accoutrements (buttons etc.) of their late capbadge. It appears however, that whilst some Rifles officers carry on wearing black buttons, badges and cross-belts; others have opted for the generic brass and Sam-Brownes (see images below). The same goes for retaining/ditching the Rifle Green No.1 Dress. Is there any rhyme or reason to this, or is it just another case of generals cutting their own detail?

Gen Nick Parker; dodgy chinstrap, but otherwise all Rifled up.
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Whereas Gen Patrick Sanders (late 2RGJ/4RIFLES) has gone all shiny:
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Gen Nick Carter meanwhile just seems to bounce from one set to the other!
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RP, first question is: when were these images taken? The revised dress regs for General Staff Officers appeared in 2015. Nick Parker was out of uniform by then and Nick Carter's stint as CGS obviously spans pre- and post-change (well, they were his changes!)
 
IIRC General Nick was picked up by somebody for being dressed in a manner that wasn't in the Rifles Dress Regulations.

At which point His Magnificence instantly decreed that *he* was now right and the published Dress Regs were out of date ^^

Ah - my mate "Patrick",,, <<blushes>>
 
IIRC General Nick was picked up by somebody for being dressed in a manner that wasn't in the Rifles Dress Regulations.

At which point His Magnificence instantly decreed that *he* was now right and the published Dress Regs were out of date ^^

Ah - my mate "Patrick",,, <<blushes>>

I remember Gen Nick visiting us in the 2 Rifles Cpls' Mess. He took the whole Slack-Jacket-cut-your-own-scruffy-detail thing to a commanding level. Decent guy though.

In fairness to him, there was a period (lasting for a couple of years) when the Rifles Dress Regs were being updated every two to three months.
 
Certainly now once you reach the heady ranks of the red tabs you aren't 'late' of anything anymore.

Our new CO has had to lose all his previous RAMC accoutrements, such as buttons, rank slides etc to be replaced by the General Staff versions.

Apparently the CGS wants the General Staff to be seen as a specific corps rather than a mish mash of 'lates', or that's how it was explained to him anyway.
 
Something about giving the general staff a stronger identity, rather than former tribal loyalties. Have a look on the staff officers’ forum I’m sure this was debated back in 2015.
 
Something about giving the general staff a stronger identity, rather than former tribal loyalties. Have a look on the staff officers’ forum I’m sure this was debated back in 2015.

Yup. It was one of several changes intended to make a more coherent General Staff. There was a BAR article about it at the time.
 
Does that coherence extend to their being only one way to think?

I fear so. Carter is not known for tolerating dissent.

There's a big push for mission command and 'intelligent disagreement' so we'll see how that affects thinking at the top. I'm not optimistic.
 
Something about giving the general staff a stronger identity, rather than former tribal loyalties. Have a look on the staff officers’ forum I’m sure this was debated back in 2015.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll look up the thread. I note that the common identity extends to stable belts, but not berets and rank badges:

CtCUnL9W8AAZgb4.jpg
 
I fear so. Carter is not known for tolerating dissent.

There's a big push for mission command and 'intelligent disagreement' so we'll see how that affects thinking at the top. I'm not optimistic.

I seem to recall that the intelligent disagreement thing was being sponsored by Gen Messenger. I did wonder if it was part of the inevitable positioning to help decide if the next CDS will be called Messenger, Everard or Carter?
 
Something about giving the general staff a stronger identity, rather than former tribal loyalties. Have a look on the staff officers’ forum I’m sure this was debated back in 2015.
Quite right because the way things are going the General Staff Corps is going to be the army's largest!
 
Thanks for the heads up, I'll look up the thread. I note that the common identity extends to stable belts, but not berets and rank badges:

CtCUnL9W8AAZgb4.jpg



The cap badge is dependent on Rank, Only the four officers in the front appear to be of the Genral staff. The Royal Signals officer (Centre rear ) is a Major, so I suspect that the other two in the rear rank musts be of field rank as well. If you look at the right arm TRF of the two front left officers , it looks as if this could be a GS TRF, But I am not sure, as I have not seen this before.
 
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