Bill,
The Tunic photo that Hanno posted for me belonged to Trooper Karl Lemon. His grandson now holds his items which are numerous. They include a badged beret, complete uniform, photos, many misc. unused and used insignia and more...
The black backing on the insignia is probably only on "best" BD. I also have a photo of Tpr Lemon in uniform and the shoulder title seems a bit bulky but from what I can make out of his and two other men's 79AD and 31Bde patches they have no dark outline.
Of these "two piece" constructed insignia...All the pieces are sewn to black wool, possibly beret material. It makes them quite thick and bulky. It does seem to be common, at least to "B" Squadron personnel. I have a photo of Tpr. Vic Norburn's BD that is at the Lorne Scots Museum in Brampton (He was B Squadron as well). It is badged identically. My dad was in "A" squadron I will ask him tomorrow if he remembers how his insignia was put together, though he gave away his uniforms to his brother to use as "workshop" clothing back in '46...
I have also seen a pair of diablos from Trooper Clifford Phillips that were a green cotton or khaki drill material with a dark black outline as well. It was under glass so I can not be sure of the actual construction but I think it was two piece as well.
Sewing the "Bevo" style shoulder title to a backing makes sense since they are incredibly flimsy, being an artifical silk material. Since we are talking about these shoulder titles I may as well pass along the detailed information I got from a Dutch collector about thier origins.
A sample book from the "Van Engelen en Evers" weaving mill in Heeze was sold to militaria dealer in Rotterdam in 1959. This book contained the mill's samples of insignia it produced for 21 AG in 1944-45 and the Dutch army up to 1959. Inside were samples of Canadian cloth insignia for 1CACR, 1st Canadian Army lozenge and rank pips as well as 20+ insignia for the British (including 79 AD), Poland, and US 9th Army. I purchased the 1CACR title from this book back in January. I also got scans of the othe Canadian items from the book (which have all been sold now).
Trooper Lemon's collection had one unused diablo in it, it was not mounted to black cloth and looked to be hand cut as it was slightly irregular. Theses diablos are a very bright green wool/melton. His collection had both Bevo 79AD insignia and printed cotton. As well he had a few of the "melton" shoulder titles, unused and not mounted to any backing.
One other item I found interesting in the Lemon collection was a solid black lanyard. Years ago I purchased a very similar style lanyard in Black and Orange "said" to be 1CACR but no real provenance...
Feel free to email me if you want any further information or photos.
Bill Miller
