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Can you help with Cap badge & Uniform of my G. Grandfather

nmccreary

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My Great Grandfather was in the military, and nobody in the family knows much about his service, besides perhaps he was an MP.

All we really have is his name, George McCreery (McCreary) and that he was Protestant Scots Irish from Northern Ireland (Co. Armagh) and he came to Canada sometime after my grandfather was born - he could have came anywhere between 1912 and 1920 for all we know, and he passed away in 1946 in Saskatchewan.His son, my grandfather came to Canada when he was 14 years old in search of his father, and I know from my family that he was not friendly with his father either, so there was little discussion between my grandfather & my dad & aunts about George McCreery. To add confusion, the last name was spelled McCreery by by Great Grandfather,and spelled McCreary by my grandfather.

I have looked in the CEF database online, and found a George Samuel McCreery, but I have no clue if it could be him - nobody knows my great grandfather's middle name, we are also unsure if he was here in Canada by WW1, and I've been lead astray looking at other records only to find that this is not my relative.

CEF Link

The only other clue we have is his photograph.

geo_mcreery.jpg


I've scoured online galleries of cap badges, and I haven't found one that I even think looks similar. I am sincerely stuck.

I was wondering if someone here could give me clues into what forces he was a part of and any other information you can help me with from his uniform. My great grandfather is more or less a mystery to my family, and I hope you can help.

Thanks

Nicole McCreary
 
Another forum identified his as Military police (with WW1 trio ribbons), and his cap badge is from the BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan) organization - specifically the Central Manitoba Flying Training School. The forth badge on this page:
Cap badge
 
Your great-grandfather may have served as an MP during WWI, however a cursory examination of the uniform in the photo indicates that it is not a "military" uniform, it appears more likely to be police or security guard.  Your identification of the capbadge as being associated with the BCATP does provide the best clue.  While the BCATP in Canada was run by the RCAF many of its instructors (and most likely other staff) were civilians.  They did, however, often wear uniforms (but not RCAF uniforms).  It is likely that the gent in the photo (especially if he had previous experience as a policeman or provost) was employed as a security guard at a BCATP station during WW2.  Though the RCAF Service Police (SP) were responsible for policing and security functions at RCAF (including BCATP) installations, it is conceiveable that civilians were employed to augment services such as security in the same manner as the civilian flying instructors (many of whom were either too old or unable to meet other standards to join the forces).
 
Just to add a quick point..... during WWII, many Canadian POW Camps were guarded by overage men too old for the Canadian Army Overseas. These men were more often than not, ex-servicemen who saw service in WWI.
 
The Photograph shows a much modern look, than the typical daguerreotype that would be used in the era of the first world war.

So I would have to agree with the others, the uniform might be of a later period.  Which may help you in your search.

dileas

tess
 
If you think that he was with the Manitoba flying school, perhaps contacting the Manitoba Military Aviation Museum might be able to give you a better idea on the period that he may have served.  If you can pin point the period and where he served, doing a request to the national archives for a copy of some of the information might just do the trick!
 
Thanks everyone - you've given me quite a few suggestions & cleared up a few mysteries.

I guessed the photo was from a later time (early to mid 1940's) from a stamp on the back (I can't remember what it said, but the date was around 1940) - I'll have to borrow it from my dad again and find out exactly when & where the photo was taken. He was a touch too old at that time to serve overseas - I think he was born about 1870 and passed away in 1946.

My family & I always thought that the uniform was not military, but a police uniform. My dad & I talked last night and the RCAF Service Police that Blackadder1916 mentioned sounded right but they are not sure because from my grandfather's records of immigration that when my grandfather Jack McCreery came to Canada in 1928, that George was in Assiniboia Saskatchewan, and in 1946, George passed away in the same town. As I said before information on George is sketchy because my grandfather & his siblings were "abandoned" in Ireland by George, and my grandfather never forgave George for that.

It makes sense that they would hire veterans as police and guards. My family thinks he served in WW1 - but in the British Army - not the Canadian army, and that he probably came to Canada at the end of WW1 - but people from Northern Ireland with the last name McCreery were a little too common. I found three people named George McCreery who had been awarded medals in England during WW1 - so UK records aren't really helping, and I can not find any passage records of a George McCreery coming to Canada other than a CPT. G.S. McCreery coming at the end of WW1 (1919) along with other troups.

Was there any way that a British Army soldier could have "transfered" to Canada or transferred to the Canadian military? I do know other McCreery's (possibly even a brother of George) were already in Canada, and although I had no problem finding my grandfather John's passenger listing - the 1919 troup passenger listing was the only one that even remotely fits with George McCreery no matter how I try to misspell McCreery.

I will definitely will contact the Manitoba Military Aviation Museum and see if they have any records that I would be able to see - and perhaps those would clear up more information about him.
 
nmccreary said:
My family & I always thought that the uniform was not military, but a police uniform. My dad & I talked last night and the RCAF Service Police that Blackadder1916 mentioned sounded right but they are not sure because from my grandfather's records of immigration that when my grandfather Jack McCreery came to Canada in 1928, that George was in Assiniboia Saskatchewan, and in 1946, George passed away in the same town. . . .

Just a clarification re my previous post as I do not want to leave you with the (mistaken?) idea that he may have served in the RCAF Service Police.  The uniform he is wearing in the photo is not a SP uniform.  The "Service Police" were the RCAF's "military police" and its members were in the forces.  They would have been uniformed like this:

photo2.jpg


jacket.jpg


Many of the civilians involved in the BCATP were not actually government employees, but employees of the contractors/subcontactors who operated some of the training schools (flying and other trades).  From the brief research I've done it seems that many of the uniforms (and badges) that the flying (and other) instructors wore were either provided by their (civilian) employers or themselves.  There were no government designed and mandated uniforms or insignia.  It is likely that a security guard (whether hired by the RCAF or the civilian contractor who ran that particular flying school) wore the same capbadge that the other (uniformed) civilian employees did.
 
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