Posted 11 years ago
antiquariu…
(136 items)
This is a wonderful old WWI sweetheart pin. The RAF came about late in the war and were the Royal Flying Corps early in the war, so this may be a very early RAF pin. The pin is plated with gold over silver. There are two marks on the back. To the left of the pin in the back photo is ?CT (for carat gold?) but I can't make out the number, and on the right of the pin in the photo is letters that look like ONT. Does anyone know what the letters are? I'm collecting stuff on WWI in prep for the anniversary next year.
Canadian would be RCAF - the Brits would not likely have something like this made in the "colonies"...bip, bip
I suspect that your wing is actually WW2 era and not WW1.
Pilots from other nations (Canada, Australia, NZ, et...) were offered comissions in order to meet the immediate need of experienced pilots in Great Britain.
It wouldn't suprise me to see "RAF" wings produced in Canada to show a loved one was fighting "with the RAF".
scott
I appreciate your comments Scott and AR8Jason, but some things do not add up. My Dad was in RCAF in WWII - he was transferred to RAF as a special attaché to the British war office in the last year of the war and stayed on for 2 more years. I have both sets of his wings and the designs are very different from these. In addition, these came in a lot of stuff that was all from WWI UK. I have seen one set of WWI RAF wings on ebay and they looked similar but more modern than mine - mine are open at the top while the ones on ebay were closed in around the letters. I am pretty certain mine are gold plated but they may not be silver underneath - would that explain lack of UK hallmark?