Can anybody throw any light on this unidentified mounted (WWI?) soldier ?

[majm]

Good point Tonepad.

  I  wonder if the rifle has been identified....   a variety of rifles were used in WWI .... 

JM.

[T1]

The complete photo shows a more typical British landscape than Macedonian (harsh and arid).
There is a typical British hedgerow running through the photo in the middle distance.

The middle standing chap's clothing is not Serbian. He is wearing a British waistcoat with a V-neck, unfastened. He is not wearing a Serbian Hat.

British soldiers with waistcoats attending to horses:

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/british-army-horses-during-first-world-war


The photo was possibly taken at a summer training camp before WW1 started in Aug 1914:

https://www.porthcawlandthegreatwar.com/1912---1914.html

Notice more soldiers wearing waistcoats.


Tony

For what it's worth, agree with this 100 %

T

[cliffkinch]

The chap in the middle with the waistcoat puzzles me. It looks like he is wearing a forage cap, but it is very lightly placed on his head. I tried to isolate him from the background as there is something else behind him. It may not even be a forage cap and he may not have headgear on
Thoughts?
Cliff

[kob3203]

The complete photo shows a more typical British landscape than Macedonian (harsh and arid).
There is a typical British hedgerow running through the photo in the middle distance.

The middle standing chap's clothing is not Serbian. He is wearing a British waistcoat with a V-neck, unfastened. He is not wearing a Serbian Hat.

British soldiers with waistcoats attending to horses:

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/british-army-horses-during-first-world-war


The photo was possibly taken at a summer training camp before WW1 started in Aug 1914:

https://www.porthcawlandthegreatwar.com/1912---1914.html

Notice more soldiers wearing waistcoats.


Tony

Excellent observations ! It just goes to show how easy it is to get an idea lodged in your head without even realizing.

The original comments about this photo several years ago were that it was probably a training camp in the UK, although the middle standing chap's clothing had a Turkish appearance to it. There was also a query about whether it could be Ceylon.

Without really thinking about it I'd interpreted the field behind them as being a vineyard or a tea plantation. But on looking again without those preconceptions it appears to simply being a ploughed field.

I'm now wondering what the small building on the horizon (near the rifle muzzle in the photo) could be.

And hopefully this photo is large enough for a definitive identification of his rifle, as majm asked.

I've attached the full size photo for anybody who wants to try and enhance bits of it.

[kob3203]

The chap in the middle with the waistcoat puzzles me. It looks like he is wearing a forage cap, but it is very lightly placed on his head. I tried to isolate him from the background as there is something else behind him. It may not even be a forage cap and he may not have headgear on
Thoughts?
Cliff

After looking at it again I would say he's definitely wearing some some of headgear. There's definitely something that's distinctly different from the field and/or the hedge behind him. And I think maybe it is a forage cap, worn at a very jaunty angle. The left side (from his point of view) appears to be in shade, and I think I can make out two buttons ?

I'm still a bit puzzled about the waistcoat. It could very well be a British one as tonepad proposed, but I still see what appears to be some very un-British embroidered decoration on it (his left side) and some sort of frilly shirt.

Can anybody explain those features ? Hopefully I'm just misinterpreting them !

[Maiden Stone]

The chap in the middle with the waistcoat puzzles me. It looks like he is wearing a forage cap, but it is very lightly placed on his head. I tried to isolate him from the background as there is something else behind him. It may not even be a forage cap and he may not have headgear on
Thoughts?
Cliff

That's what I'm thinking now. He has a good head of hair. His features look Irish to me.

British soldiers with waistcoats attending to horses:

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/british-army-horses-during-first-world-war

Interesting. My grandad's horses would have been on the horse census. There was a railway station less than half-a-mile from their farm so collecting and transporting them would have been quick and convenient if they'd been requisitioned.

[ShaunJ]

The British Army (except for the Royal Flying Corps) didn't have that sort of field service cap in the WW1 era.

The Šajkača however is the traditional headdress worn by men in the Serbian countryside. 


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0ajka%C4%8Da

[cliffkinch]

Hugely intriguing 
Ive enhanced the area best I can and it still looks like the "hat" belongs to someone/something behind him on the horse .. no idea as to what. Ive tried to emphasise it with the yellow in the snippet attached
Cliff

[majm]

Is that "yellow" and red outline  showing the rear of a mule and the man's head, if hatless, is that a mule laden up over his left shoulder.  ... 

WWI ... the British Empire .... Canafa, New Zealand, India, Australia ... all had Horse Brigades ...  at the front, but also as general transport of stores, tents for clearing hospitals, and many other logistics etc.

JM. Edited to make better sense.