A New Beret...

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 06/08/2016 12:43:23

In February this year John Holland put out an appeal for help on the CVA Facebook Page. John's father, Dutch Holland, No.3 Cdo, had mislaid his green beret on a train when returning from fellow Veteran, Dougie Roderick's funeral and was, understandably, very upset about his loss.

A number of CVA Friends immediately leapt into action...
Denise Orzel contacted Budgie Burgess about acquiring a replacement green beret, whilst Dave Davies said that he would supply a replacement REME cap badge.

But Dutch had also worn the cloth Commando Association cap badge on his beret.

A couple of years ago Billy Moore, a No.5 Commando veteran, had also lost his beret and whilst replacing his beret and KRRC cap badge had proved to be no problem whatsoever, The Cdo Assoc. cloth badge was a different story!
Obviously as The Cdo Assoc. 'Stood Down' in 2005, the badges are no longer produced. We, the CVA, had no knowledge of who the manufacturer was or if there were any available anywhere.
I scoured Ebay and similar on-line auction sites, sent out enquiries to Militaria Dealers and put out several messages on various media asking for help - all to no avail!

Eventually I approached a company called 'Monty's Locker' to see if they could/would help. Monty's Locker deals in reproduction military badges and patches and manufactures cloth badges. After I had explained the situation, Derek, the owner, promised that he would do his best to help.
We discussed the thorny question of copyright and eventually it was decided that if Derek made a similar badge to the one I needed and sent it to me, as a sample, then there would be no copyright issue.
I sent him a photo of the original complete with all the measurements & dimensions and within a couple of weeks I was in receipt of a cloth badge that was very similar to the original Cdo Assoc. badge - there were a couple of minor differences to the Fighting Knife but that was all. Nobody would notice...

photo shows original Cdo Assoc. cloth beret badge on the left and the reproduction on the right

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 06/08/2016 12:44:57

...The badge was sent off and sewn to a green beret and Brigadier Jack presented Billy Moore with his replacement beret, complete with two badges, at the CVA visit to RH Chelsea that year - Billy was over the moon.

So now I faced the same problem with Dutch's beret!
I contacted Derek at Monty's Locker and, once again, explained the situation. Derek immediately came up trumps and said he would produce another 'sample' and, sure enough, within a week I received another cloth badge.

However, things weren't to be that simple!
First of all the REME cap badge sent by Dave Davies had mysteriously disappeared in the mail.
As fortune would have it I had, only the day before, visited a local antique shop and noted that they had a number of cap badges in the shop - one being a REME one of the correct era. I was soon scurrying back out to the dealer and quickly obtained the badge!
Both badges were now dispatched to John Holland on the promise that John would provide good photos of Dutch with his new beret...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 06/08/2016 12:46:23

...Weeks passed but no photos appeared - so I assumed that John had not sewn the badges on yet and contacted him to chivvy him along a bit!
Poor John was extremely apologetic and explained that he hadn't sewn them on because Dutch had spotted the subtle differences on the replacement cloth badge and was not happy about it!

After all the help he'd received, John had been far too embarrassed to say that the badge wasn't good enough, but I reassured him that he needn't be - especially as I was impressed that Dutch's sharp eye had noticed the difference between the two badges.
By good fortune, I had just been given an original badge by a friend and although I was very loath to part with it, I decided that Dutch's cause was far more deserving than mine and sent it off to John that day. [hope you don't mind Dave!]

Naturally, this one passed Dutch's sharp scrutiny and John has now sewn it on and has sent photos of a delighted Dutch wearing his green beret with pride...

Thanks to everyone who helped...

Nick

Well done Nick...Great result.