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WW1 Grandfather - anyone recognise the cap badge?

Flandrian

Swinger
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I wonder if anyone on here can help? I'm trying to find out more about my Grandfather, Albert Edward Stevens from Poplar in London, who served in France and Belgium during WWI and as a fireman in the London docks in WWII. This is the only photograph we have of him from WW1 - he's third on the right, top row, with the moustache. Not many clues in the picture but does anyone recognise the cap badge of the guy in the middle of the bottom row? Would really appreciate any information or advice - is there a particular regiment or unit he would more likely have joined from the East End of London? All advice gratefully received, thanks in advance.
 
...looks more like APTC.. crossed sabres!

The fact that the guys are in shirt sleeves with fixed bayonets and the presence of a fencing mask and gloves would suggest that they have been bayonet fencing, which was always a Gym Queen thang...!
 
Thanks both. Yes, someone had suggested that this might have been take on some sort of PTI course, although the fella at the back looks like he might be a bit old for that.
 
PT Corps.

ETA: Infantry options for enlistment would most likely have been Royal Fusiliers or maybe the London Regiment (17/Londons recruited in Poplar and Stepney with their HQ being in Bow).
 
You're basically stumped on the unit from the picture alone unfortunately - the PTI will be attached, rather than this being a unit of PTIs. Also the territorial affiliations to units broke down as the war went on. The East End was a crossover patch for regular units too rather than the fiefdom of any one. *Most* likely for the East End is the East Surreys, which is what most of the New Army units from that neck of the woods got swept up into. Outside chance of the Royal Fusiliers.
 
Thanks all, I'd not made the fencing connection until now. Presumably this would have been part of the standard training for recruits before they were sent off? Don't have much information about where and in what unit he served - when I was younger I remember him showing me his medals, he definitely talked about "Wipers" (Ypres) and I remember the scars and marks on his hands which he said were from shrapnel. Family myth also says that at one point he was "a General's batman", but I take that with a pinch of salt.
 
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Army Gymnastic Staff from 1860 - 1918 when the branch was named Army Physical Training Staff in 1918 and was granted corps status in 1940 (APTC). Recently became Royal; other than crown no change in badge since inception.
 
Thanks all, I'd not made the fencing connection until now. Presumably this would have been part of the standard training for recruits before they were sent off? Don't have much information about where and in what unit he served - when I was younger I remember him showing me his medals, he definitely talked about "Wipers" (Ypres) and I remember the scars and marks on his hands which he said were from shrapnel. Family myth also says that at one point he was "a General's batman", but I take that with a pinch of salt.
Do you have a full name for him? Some on here well then be able to work their ninja magic!
 
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