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From: "STAN SMITH" <>
Subject: Re: [nz] Sgt Les Timpson WW1
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:36:09 +1300
References: <mailman.942.1296271700.12978.new-zealand@rootsweb.com><a06240801c96a314fecd1@[192.168.1.100]>
In-Reply-To: <a06240801c96a314fecd1@[192.168.1.100]>


Hi Colin,

Thank you to all the other listers that replied.
Les served 4 yrs & 248 days of which 4 yrs 100 days were overseas.
On his Attestation Paper he made himself a year older than he actually was
no doubt to get in and joined 13 Feb 1915 having already had military
training.
In 1915 he served at Gallipoli & Mudros
In 1916 in Egypt and from 1917 in Western Europe.
His record states that he was slightly wounded in 1916 but remained with the
unit.
So that all makes sense He would have had four blue service chevrons & one
red one for being wounded in 1916.
He received from what I can read the Gallipoli Medal, 1914-1915 Star,
British War Medal & Victory Medal.

Thanks again.

Stan


-----Original Message-----
From: Graham Hoult [mailto:]
Sent: Sunday, 30 January 2011 12:16 p.m.
To:
Cc: STAN SMITH
Subject: Re: Sgt Les Timpson WW1

On Sat, 29 Jan 2011 "STAN SMITH" <> asked

>Subject: [nz] Sgt Les Timpson WW1
>
>Hi,
>
>Am hoping someone with military knowledge can help me.
>I have been sent a photo of him in his formal sergeant's uniform
>It clearly shows the three chevrons on his upper arm.
>However on his forearm there are five smaller chevrons the opposite way
>around to his sergeant's chevrons.
>My question is what do the five smaller chevrons stand for or mean?

Hi Stan

Further to Shirley Arabin's comment

>they stand for length of service

I am no expert on militaria but learned a little after obtaining a
copy of the WW1 Service Record of my dad's half-brother who was a WW1
(including Gallipoli) veteran.

Those little chevrons on the forearm are known as Service Chevrons.

If you were to get a printout of his WW1 Service Record, you would
see them mentioned in a column on form BR 220, just to the right of
the column listing Service Medals.

It won't show on a black and white photo, but those service chevrons
are coloured red or blue, red for service in 1914, blue for
subsequent years.

I suspect that Sgt TIMPSON's record will show that he had 1 Red and 4
Blue Service Chevrons.

You can see a photo of a uniform with two blue service chevrons on
http://militarianz.freeforums.org/new-zealand-made-ww1-other-ranks-tunic-t20
12.html

You can see mention of Service Chevrons on the service record of
2/1209 Bdr TIMPSON John Thomas. This has been digitised and is
available for download from Archway as a pdf file. Anyone interested
could view it, then delete the file.

You will find Form BR 220 a little over half way through the
download, two scans beyond the ATTESTATION form. He is shown as
having 4 blue Service Chevrons.

You will also see that Bdr TIMPSON had a "Wound Stripe" dated 17/6/16.

Wound Stripes were approved in Aug 1916. They consisted of gold
Russian braid, two inches long, sewn upright on the lower left
sleeve. Subsequent wound stripes were sewn left or right of the first
one at half inch intervals.

Men who were 'Wounded-Gas' or 'Wounded-Shell Shock' were also
entitled to Wound Stripes.

Hope this helps
Graham Hoult.

PS
FWIW, the basic information in this post is from a message Ron Jones
sent me on 27 May 1998 via the NZ_Genealogy conference in the BBS
days, which could be regarded as a forerunner of this NZ mailing list.

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