I know it's not about aircraft, but you are the judges in all things?

Toddington Ted, you will find that some officers seem to think tha dress regs don’t apply to them. Again the higher the rank the greater the deviation.
Baz, you have just thrown up another difference between RAF and Army. We always referred to the SD cap (or forage cap to us) as a Tw** hat but we also referred to side hats as chip bags.

Ah yes the Forage Cap…AKA ‘Chip Bag’ or ‘Twa* Hat’
Real ‘Brylcreem Boy’ stuff 😀

Great minds think alike – or use the same source??

And have you seen the price of today’s SD hat – £265!!! Ten times the price of my first car. Give me a Beret.

= Tim

In ‘my day’, the Forage hat/cap was worn on the right of the head.

What happened – when??

= Tim

Well, as an ex-RAF officer I never bought one of the things – always wore an SD hat or (on rare occasions) a beret! As I still have access to the RAF as an MOD CS employee I thought that I would check the relevant AP
AP 1358, CHAP 1 and I quote from the webpage today:

“Wearing of Head-dress

0124. When wearing uniform outdoors, on or off base, headdress is to be worn by all personnel in the following manner:

a. No 1 SD Hat. The No 1 SD hat is to be worn so that the bottom of the hat is 25mm above the eyebrows, the front of the hat level and the
badge positioned centrally. The chinstrap is to be taut and positioned to cover the blue seam between the hatband and peak. RAF Police
personnel of the rank of WO and below wear a white-topped SD Hat when wearing all variations of No 1 or No 2 SD. The No 1 SD hat is
never worn with CS 95.

b. Forage Cap. The forage cap, which is an optional extra at own expense, is worn tilted to the right so that that front edge is approximately
25mm above the eyebrows and the side edge is approximately 12mm above the right ear. The material is blue/grey worsted barathea of
standard styling for wg cdrs and below; for gp capts and air officers the cap is piped in minerva blue. The forage cap is never worn with CS 95.”

So it would seem that the style worn in your photos by the RAF personnel is not correct. I cannot speak for the Army officer in the photo as individual regiments and corps tend to have their own regulations. It would seem however that the RAF style should be as per so many archive photos! As I said, I never wore one; aircrew find forage caps useful as its easy to tuck them away for flight, so to speak.

Good for a laugh?

So AP 1358 (my quote) is out of date??

= Tim

I did some asking around on camp this afternoon using your pictures and apparently the two modern officers are wearing their caps absolutely to modern regulation, ie central on the head.
The cap itself looks like a different style to the WWII images.
Not my thing head dress, but all I could find out.

Good old Google.

So – both the General & the Group Captain are incorrect!!

b. Forage Cap. The forage cap, which is an optional extra at own expense, is worn tilted to the right so that that front edge is approximately 25mm above the eyebrows and the side edge is approximately 12mm above the right ear. The material is blue/grey worsted barathea of standard styling for wg cdrs and below; for gp capts and air officers the cap is piped in Minerva blue. The forage cap is never worn with CS 95.

= Tim

In my day they were known as side hats and were worn canted over to starboard. Forage caps referred to the peaked cap in the first pic. For us side hats were only for informal dress or everyday headdress for staff car drivers.

I’m a bit sceptical about the above replies, I know and have worked with many officers, most are great people, and are pretty savy about regulations.
I would say there has been a change both in wearing style from jaunty angle to central on the head and the style of the hat itself, but when and why etc I couldn’t say.
Unfortuantely our only officer here has just been posted out so I cant even ask him!

Yes – 2 officers in the left photo & one in the right also.

So – how should it be worn – & since when??

= Tim

They don’t know how to salute either. The higher the rank the less like a proper salute it becomes. Among Army officers what I call the “Tea cup pinkie” seems to be a favourite. Pity I don’t have a photo to demonstrate, though I am sure you understand.

The guy in the middle photo is an officer. They never did know how to wear a hat or headdress of any kind. I have had to berate many an officer for incorrect wearing of headdress. Especially seconded RAF in the Middle East.

CS