It is with great pleasure I have been asked by Keith Drummond and Brian Streetly to take up the function of Historian, secretary and News-editor of the Royal Signals Organisation they run.
It is indeed a deep honour then I have only been active in the activities of the Royal Signals for a few weeks and my past while as valid as that of any other member or former member of the royal signals here may be, is due to personal circumstances and development "unusual".
This news letter will be written on a monthly basis, and made available as a PDF file into either a yahoo newsgroup, and/or as an archived file copy in the main site of the Royal Signals Organisation.
At the outset we have several ideas that we intend to pursue, however they may be adjusted as the service develops. The service will however be free and for registered members. We will take due care to protect the members e-mail details against spamming, or other forms of misuse.
We will need your participation and feedback, so please send us your stories, concerns and wishes, and please recommend us to your friends and enemies
To get the ball rolling, this first issue will contain some details about our Corps and Cap Badge History but written from a slightly different angle than most to date.
I thank you in advance, and also in the name of Brian Streetly, Keith Drummond
Mrs. Petra Henderson
(Royal Signals 1971-1976)
With the Royal Canadian Signals Celebrating their 100th Birthday this year, it is hard to understand that the Royal Signals which was founded as the Corps of Signals on 28 June 1920 is still the real father of them all. "How so? Is Einstein's theory on bending time and space affecting Petra's mind perhaps?" I hear you say! Then otherwise how can it be true that a 83 year old fathered a 100 year old son?
Many associate the Signals with Radios and electronic Telegraphy, but often forget that there has always been signals in every army. From the drummer, the bugler, the standard bearer, the beaconeer, the runner and despatch rider, the pigeon keeper, dog handler, the heliographer, the flags man or the mechanical semaphore / signal mast operator. Indeed in this day of Radio, Line and Satellite communications it is easy to forget that the Royal Signals also was founded on the basis of Horse riding Dispatch riders and Flag and Heliographic signalling skills that were needed and used by all branches of the British military. Indeed the Royal Signals is by Heritage a Calvary force which explains the spurs and cut of the No.1 Uniform.
One Regiment exhibited by nature of their work, that they had a greater need for Signals than any other of their time, namely the Royal Engineers. Then the R.E. were tasked with additional non-, or semi-military task that needed great amounts of data to be transferred over vast distances. Namely the conducting of accurate Triangulation and Ordinations of the old and new territories of the British empire.
In Fig 1 the flag waver is probably relaying the received signal in real time to another station .
The great recording of Geographical data with heights and outlines for accurate maps and trigonometry information required a high transfer of information quick and error free. Then the needs of both the empire and the military had reached a stage where accurate mapping was paramount to maintaining an advantage over the rest of the world. This included the building of military roads, Telegraph signalling stations and pathways for the visual and/or wired Telegraphy.
It was for this reason that the Royal Engineers were the first to need a higher ratio of Signallers than any other service, and so took to selecting and schooling them on a large scale. These modern communications naturally had a role to play for the military campaigns of the day, such as the use of Morse Code and electric needle signalling telegraph systems which were used for the first time in the Crimean War (1835-1837) but the use of modern technologies needed skills and standards which were way above the average of the typical soldier of the day.
A trait we still have in the Corps today and maybe why an ex-Signals person has above average intelligence and is sought after by knowledgeable and clever employers.
In 1870 this need to understand and use both electric and mechanical equipment, coupled with the need to be able to be able to read and write (which was not so common back then!) placed a much higher educational demand upon the signaller than that even demanded of many of the officers of the day. So following the Abyssinian War of 1867, the Royal Engineers in 1870, formed a dedicated Signal Wing called 'C' Telegraph Troop, Royal Engineers, at Chatham.
Every Corps had their own set of signalling flag patterns and colours, which was to help ensure you knew you had "spotted" the right signaller. And often they had their own codes, which made intercommunication difficult, the foundation of the Signal Service unified the system and skills over the entire military and even was adopted by the navy prior to the first world war.
A complex system of dipping to the front, left or right, was used long before Samuel Morse invented his code. The Flags were used only one at a time, the solid blue colour for daylight good weather or against a bright background, the White with blue stripe for dusk, dawn or in bad weather or against a dark background. The signalling was commonly known as wigwag or waving and to the untrained eye looked entirely random and chaotic.
Once the Morse code became established the flag waving changed to short and wide sweeps, for dots and dashes, the flags needed to be kept moving at all times to keep them unfurled and visible, so there were also moves to front and back for pauses between letters or words.
Today the crossed flags of our "Engineers" colours (Blue and Blue/white) are still common to all "British" derived Signals Corps worldwide.
The Americans however (Being derived from a different kind of regimental origin), use crossed white and red bordered flags where the left is inverse of the right. See Illustration below. They used a similar kind of wig wagging, but with a patented new code, which was efficient enough for them to continue using it until 1912, when they replaced it with Morse.
|
Figure 2 The US Army School of Signals
(with torch of knowledge)
 |
Canadian Trade badge with our old Blue and Blue/white Signalling Flags
 |
We in the Royal Signals still today have a connection to this past, and can find the Blue and White and pure Blue Flags which were a main signalling tool of 150 years ago, adorning the Symbol of the Royal School of Signals logo.
When the first Motorcycle Dispatch Riders were introduced into WW1, they wore a Blue/white brassard on their arm, these "Flag" colours being deliberately clear enough so that they would be waved through and given priority on the roads.
Several Signals Regiments today also still use these Blue and White colours.
In 1884, the Telegraph Battalion was expanded and the because of the growth in communications requirements from the afore said mapping work of the great empire, etc., it was decided to form the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 1st Telegraph Battalion, Royal Engineers, and for the remainder of the Queen Victoria's reign the task of signalling remained firmly the prerogative and responsibility of these Telegraph Battalions, indeed also beyond her death in 1901, well into 1908, when the Royal Engineers "Signal Service" was formed.
The Signal Service was what we can consider today to be the final predecessor of the Royal Corps of Signals.
At the turn of the century the plans set down in 1870 for modernizing communications across the empire, were still being followed, these included the Planning and Erecting telegraph wires across India, etc. These activities needed the Signalling skills due to the vast distances involved, to coordinate the work of Ordinance and Mapping engineers to plan the best routes. Then the need to connect all points of the empire by wire was a high priority set by Queen Victoria and her Government. The Royal Engineers who were responsible for the safe keeping of diplomatic and military post in foreign lands and new sovereign territories, be it by letter or code, (Similar to how the GPO developed to become the keeper of the little yellow Buzzbies!) were naturally keen to win the Queen's faith and trust by proving their worth and ability to perform.
It was this Royal Engineer Signal Service who got the first newly created 'wireless sets' which as their name suggested allowed for Telegraphy without wires, and so they were seconded to other branches as the experts and provided communications during World War One.
At this time, the Motorcycle Despatch Rider came into prominence and were similarly introduced into Royal Engineer Signalling service.
Well going back to 1884, with the formation of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 1st Telegraph Battalion, Royal Engineers a certain Major CFC Beresford who was the first Commander of the 2nd Division decided that his division needed its own emblem (or 'device' as he called it). Then although he had asked the Battalion for suggestions there was none forthcoming that were considered to be any better than his own, and so he decided that the figure of Roman God Mercury (same as Greek god Hermes) should be adopted. Mercury was both a Messenger of the Gods and Guide of dead souls to the Underworld.
It is thought that the inspiration for the chosen form of Mercury (or as the Corps lovingly call him "Jimmy") which has many stances in Roman statues, came to Major Beresford from the bronze statue of Mercury, the winged messenger that his father had probably purchased at the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park in 1851.
This had then been set up in his garden in Camberley. It was first used with great similarity to today's badge, in the Battalion magazine, Military Telegraph Bulletin, on 15 September 1884, and was also used on headed notepaper.
The roman god Mercury was seldom shown in the graceful pose we know today, as this preceding Photo of an A.D. 200 example shows. But the characteristics we know are there including the Staff with winged top and entwined snakes, the symbol of healing, and the wings on his helmet
Indeed the bronze statue Major CFC Beresford had was a modern mass reproduced one based on one from the middle ages based loosely on the ancient Roman sculpture by a Flemish/Italian sculptor called Giambologna and made for GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA (born ca. 1524, in Donai, died 1608, in Firenze) Giambologna made four versions the first design, a heavy wingless figure, is preserved in a model in Bologna. When he returned to Florence, he referred to his earlier work in a second version, a flying Mercury, now lost or identical to a third one in Vienna. This bronze was send by Cosimo as a diplomatic gift to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II, when they were negotiating the marriage of Maximilian's sister Giovanna to Francesco de' Medici. The messenger god was Maximilian's protector and the pose was based on a medal of Maximilian by Leone Leoni (1551).
The fourth, a flying variant in Florence (shown in Figure 8 and identical to the statue bought in 1851) was completed by 1580, when it became a fountain figure at the Villa Medici, Rome. Mercury balances on a bronze column of air issuing from the mouth of the face of Zephyr, over which flowed water, increasing the illusion that he was indeed floating.
The god assumes an graceful arabesque, balanced precariously on his toes, and points upward to Jupiter. It is Mannerist in that it can be appreciated from all angles and is elongated and elegant; yet these features contrast with its amazing physicality and an evident study of weights and balances. The precocity of "Maniera" is blended with what became Baroque illusionism and the freedom derived from using lost wax modelling for casting it. So there!
For our Badge purpose the head of Zephyr was replaced with a Globe There had been other copies over the centuries, but this one with same winged helmet, and out-stretched not curled fingers, is the one the Great Exhibition copy is based on.
The new "device" was liked by the soldiers and so on 9 May 1891 Major Beresford and Lieutenant C.J. Elkington R.E. presented a mace or 'bandstick' to the Band of the Battalion.
This handsome bandstick had a figure of Mercury at the top. This was later passed to the Royal Signals and now resides together with the original 1851 produced statue in the Corps Museum.
Another one from the 1851 Great Exhibition was given to the Louver museum in France, and yet another adorned the top of a factory chimney of the Peerless Tobacco Co., in Rochester New York, So indeed a popular Victorian symbol.
Mercury/Jimmy was never actually used by the R.E. communicators as a cap badge. It was not until the 'Corps of Signals' was formed that the question of a badge came into being. Following the decision of King George V to grant the 'Royal' title six weeks after formation, that the matter of a badge was revisited, and the first cap badge of Mercury was approved on 24 March 1921. This was of the initial pattern with the oval band or "belt" surrounding it.
Figure 9 The first Royal Signals Badge with the King's Crown. (a 1921 Drawing and Photo)
 |
 |
This is the Badge that is often seen on e-Bay being sold as a WW1 Royal Signals badge!
It was however a Badge that was Common in WW2, and remained in this style in existence up to 1946 to the introduction of the new Stand-alone Jimmy "almost" identical to that currently used today.
The badge has despite existing in only two basic designs had many variations such as with sprigs or sliders, backplates or studs, or even made in cloth or blackened aluminium.
But in its history there has been another oddity… Such as the WW2 Plastic Badge, looking like it is made of chocolate.
It was made to save precious material needed for other purposes.
Figure 10 The first Royal Signals Plastic Badge Front and Back view. (made in 1941)
 |
 |
The sample shown is marked on back as follows "T-2 117-111 A. STANLEY WALSALL"
Many associate the change in style of the British Royal Corps of Signals badge from the belted style to the free-standing style, as being the change from King George VI to Q.E. II, but there was actually a 7 year period of time where the "New" i.e. current style of badge (Two piece stand alone) was used during George's reign.
The change of style also allowed the adoption of a Slogan which was used on the WW2 Australian Corps of Signals (Before they were conferred the right to use a "Royal" pronoun) that had a Scroll under their badge with the words "Certa Cito", meaning "Swift and Sure",
Figure 12 The 1940 Australian Signals
Badge with "Certa Cito".
and for reference, a 1970 Boomerang new style badge.
 |
 |
Indeed the Australian's had already used the free standing Jimmy on a globe adorned with a scroll with "Certa Cito" on it as can be seen in the cover of their December 1941 Magazine "Through."
If it were not for the missing crown, it could easily be mistaken as an illustration based on our cap badge today.
Figure 14 Two Rhodesian Badges, one from 1950
with the Kings Crown,
and from post UDI ~ 1966-69 with the native
King's bird Crown
 |
 |
Figure 15. India (Post 1947) and a New Zealand Badge ca 1970
 |
 |
So to close the loop, here we are back to the Canadians, and their 100 years anniversary.
An overview of all the national variations and relatives of the Royal Signals Badge can be found in the drawing in Figure 17. It is not the newest, but does show the variety.
In future editions of this newsletter we will try to do a brief history of some of these different countries. (Readers Inputs are Welcome)
Figure 16 Canadian Corps of Signals (pre 1929 version) all Post 1929 badges have word "Royal" added, here a QE2 Reign example, in 1970s the oval loop was dropped and flags added.
 |
 |
 |
Herforder Association (UK reunion) ... Click
14 Signal Regiment ... 225 Signal Squadron, etc. Who served in Langeleben ... Click
Herforder Association (Herford Revisited) ... Click
E Mail Either Of The Following:-
Herford History (7 Signal Regiment) ... For Some Details
| Total of Countries Covered in DB | 54 | e.g Egypt, Aden, Cyprus, ect | |
| Total Members Details in the DB | 1533 | Registered Individuals | |
| Total No of Posting Locations | 348 | e.g Catterick, Celle, Dover Road, ect | |
| Registered Postings | 3593 | Incl. Multiple Postings per man | |
| Total Postings | 551 | No of Posting Locations in DB | |
| Total Hits | 41923 | No of Search Requests to DB | |
| Users Using MSIE | 74843 | Requests | |
| Users Using Netscape | 5549 | Requests | |
| Users using MSFrontpage | 1284 | Requests | |
| Users Using Opera | 751 | Requests | |
| Different ISP's | 1623 | Requests | |
| Mails Sent from Site | 3258 January** | **Figure Not Available for December | |
| The site was visited from ... | 97 | Different Countries | -- |
Geoffrey Taylor (now in living Canada) Wrote:
|
Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
 |
Royal Canadian Corps Of Signals Is one hundred this year Happy Birthday Founded on 24th of October 1903 |
Thank you, and till next Month.