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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Free Photo Restoration & Date Old Photographs => Topic started by: chrisdyer on Saturday 17 February 18 10:52 GMT (UK)
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Are you able to identify this uniform. It may be New Zealand. Thank you
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Sorry, can't help with identification, Chris, but I've flipped and enhanced the image to make it a little easier for the experts. It does pixellate badly. Perhaps close-up high res. scans of the insignia (helmet and sleeve) would further help them.
Peter
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Looks very like (British) Volunteer Artillery Militia - often folk mistake uniform for police as both used same design of helmets (late Victorian era) but the huge ornate helmet plate gives it away. A Google Image search of "artillery volunteers" will show lots of these fancy helmets and the badges
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I must admit that I thought he was a policemen ::)
Carol
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As did I Carol
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Are you able to identify this uniform. It may be New Zealand. Thank you
Hi - without knowing more about his background/country etc I can only make an educated guess. I think unlikely to be fm NZ - the insignia on his helmet doesn't match as far as I know. From the single-headed eagle on his helmet I would surmise he is German, probably Prussian from WW1 period. If it was a double-headed eagle then Austrian. Possibly Polish but unlikely. The 'pommel' or kugel haube on the top of his helmet helps to support the Prussian theory as they had spikes (Pickel-haube) or balls on supporting base (kugel). Hope this helps? What more do you know about his origin? Jonathan B/Reading
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I think Conner is correct. British Army adopted it's own design of German pickelhaube in 1878. It also became the police helmet. In the past, nations changed uniform designs to copy the latest victorious army in war. In this case Prussia/Germany in the Franco/Prussian War of 1870/71. Goes back a long way. The British 1768 uniforms were copied from the Prussian uniforms of Frederick the great. The weapon is unknown to me, perhaps due to he being Militia.
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Hi, I'm with conner395 and Regorian on this, this is almost identical:
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/tennants-auctioneers/catalogue-id-srten10188/lot-a676b6ef-537b-4023-b59a-a4ae00dabb40
Frank.
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Agree with the others, the braiding & flaming grenade collar dogs also supports the RA mention.
The rifle looks like a Lee Enfield 303 or a Lee Metford 303.
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Thank you for all your comments. I spelt his name wrong, it should be John McConchie, he was born in Scotland in 1857 but moved to New Zealand, although I don't know when but he is on the 1881 census.
I don't have the original picture as it was sent to me by email & I have asked if they are able to get a better picture of the badge on the helmet & the sleeve.
Thank you all once again.