Watching ‘In Which We Serve’ again last night (Friday night broadcast TV is really wonderful these days isn’t it? [/irony] ) something occurred to me to ask you knowledgeable chaps here.
The cheery Britich matelots wore their conventional uniform hats. I beleive the band with a ships name on was called the ‘tally’?
Some read ‘HMS Warspite’ or whatever, others just had the ‘HMS’ and no ship’s name.
Was this a wartime security measure, or was this for guys not allocated to a particular ship?
Moggy
By: Ja Worsley - 19th June 2005 at 08:56
Always a pleasure my old friend 🙂
By: Moggy C - 14th June 2005 at 22:57
Many thanks, that’s what I wanted to know. 🙂
Moggy
By: Ja Worsley - 14th June 2005 at 08:56
Hi Moggy Nice to see you visiting us again!
Yes it’s called a Tally Band and is worn around the mid section of a sailors cap. For those who are of a ships compliment they are required to have the TB of that ship around their caps with in a week of joining that ship. For those passing through may have something just signifying what service they are in e.g the “HMS” TB’s you saw. Down here in Australia we have our own versionsbut still follow the British line due to the Queen still being our head of state.
Examples of Australian Tally Band:
For people who serve in support roles or roles that can’t be mentioned, here in Australia they wear simply “Royal Australian Navy” on their TB’s
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June 11, 2005 at 9:24 am