Seeking proper trade name for WWII Canadian Radio Technician

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Neil Ashley

This is the bible on British Army Trade and Proficency Badges and as you can see very expensive but you can normally find them for about half of this if you watch out on e-bay or the British Military Badge Forum.

Since the eBay listing will evaporate as soon as someone buys the lot I will remove the URL and put the details in instead:

Title - "British Army Proficiency Badges"
Authors - Langley, David and Edwards, Denis.
ISBN - 9780950942704
(Hardcover and signed by D. Edwards.)

and note that it has a "Buy it now" price of £202.80 - Yikes!

(There's an unsigned copy in Australia for a mere £78.88 + 14.88 shipping, which is softcover, new, and has a 2005 supplement included.)

What I've ordered is:

Title: British Army Cloth Insignia 1940 to the Present an illustrated reference guide for collectors.

Author: Davis, Brian L

Which is B&W illustrations but a snip at a mere £10 (+£4 for postage).

The problem with the trade badges in both world wars was that there were many unoffical badges / colour combinations in use the purpose of some is not now known. The Canadian Army also had some of its own badges not used by us including Telegraph Pole and Valve (or Light bulb).

I have one of the biggest trade badge collection in the UK if anyone want to see what signals related badges I have.

Well, someone must have documented it all somewhere I'll have a look through the various books I've got at some point and see what turns up.

(This doesn't answer the original poster's question about Canadian badges, but it might be a starting point - and I will admit to wondering what some of the "circle with lightning bolts" patches were for, especially as they appear with on variety of coloured (black, khaki and (presumably RAF) blue) base fabrics.)

Best regards,
Chris.