Help identifying uniform of John Wiggins

[joger]

Hello,

please can someone help identifying this man's uniform?

His name was John Wiggins , born 17 july 1923 in Cambuslang and died 7 january in East Kilbride .

His daughter married a frenchman , she thinks he served in India in a Tank regiment .Says it's the only picture of him she 's got.

[mmm45]

That could be a Royal Armoured Corps shoulder title which would fit in with "Tanks"

[Andy J2022]

The Royal Armoured Corps was formed in 1939 and consisted of the Royal Tank Regiment (which had been formed in WW1 as the Tank Corps, gained its Royal prefix in 1923 and changed its name to Royal Tank Regiment in 1939 at the same time as the new Royal Armoured Corps was formed), and those cavalry regiments which been mechanised in the inter-war years. The Corps itself was, in 1939, divided into two groups: those equipped with main battle tanks and those in the reconnaissance role who were equipped with light tanks or armoured cars. It was from the latter group that armoured regiments were sent to India. Prior to the outbreak of WW2 they were employed all over India in the internal security role, but were predominantly used on the North West Frontier (Waziristan) during a series of border disputes.

[joger]

Thanks very much to both of you mm45 and Andy.

[joger]

I think I can read Reconnaissance Corps on the shoulder , I searched on the internet and found a book called British reconnaissance corps in world war 2 from which I believe he could have been serving in the 2 d reconnaissance regiment in India .
Where can I find his military service infos ( please excuse my lack of knowledge I never had to search for such infos)?

[Andy J2022]

His records will still be with the MOD, although it is possible they are in the process of being transferred to the National Archives. I suggest you contact the MOD first and they will tell you if the documents have been passed to TNA and what reference you should quote to trace them there. However with only his name and date of birth and no other details about his service, it may take some time to track down his service record. https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-records-of-service/apply-for-the-records-of-a-deceased-serviceperson
Unfortunately, if his records are now with TNA they won't release them yet since they have imposed their own idiosyncratic restriction that a soldier must have been born more than 115 years ago before they will release the record; the MOD just need proof that the person is dead.

For what it's worth, I don't see 'Reconnaissance Corps' in the shoulder title; it looks like three words to me, with Corps almost certainly the last one, and therefore Royal is highly likely to be the first one. If that theory is correct then the middle word has around 7-8 letters, which could be Armoured.

If you want to find out a bit more about the Reconnaissance Corps try looking here and here. However since they didn't operate in 'tanks' (not even light tanks) I'm not sure that would fit the family's recollections.

[joger]

Thank you very much Andy, I ´ ll follow your advice.

[John915]

Good evening,

Recconaissance corps shoulder flashes never had the word "CORP" on them.

Royal Armoured Corp would be correct.

John915