Attributed1915 Dated British Infantry Tunic with Battle Insignia

An exceptional 1915 dated British infantryman’s tunic to the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, remarkably still retaining one of the earliest schemes of Battle Insignia used by the British in WW1. The only such example I have encountered.   Acquired through the British Legion in the 1980s the tunic is attributed to Private Henry Beavis who enlisted in the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers in 1912, going to France with them in August 1914. At some time in the early mid war period it seems Private Beavis was wounded and upon his recovery issued a new tunic, abandoning the one here with it’s early war insignia configuration in the process.    Beavis’s regular army NF battalion was in the elite 3rd (Regular) Division in WW1, this being one of the few British divisions that experimented with Battle Insignia as early as mid 1915, most other British formations not taking up such insignia until the Battle of the Somme in 1916.   This “frozen-in-time" 1915 tunic displays several different exceptional insignia elements as well as showing clear signs of Private Beavis’s wound:   The coloured epaulettes on this tunic are from a rare probationary scheme introduced in June 1915 by the 3rd Division, this to delineate the various Companies within its infantry battalions prior to the division's attack on Bellewaarde. These Company indicator colours for battle were retained on uniform in this format by the 3rd Division until the end of the Battle of the Somme, after which time they were worn on the right epaulette only.  The red epaulettes here designate “Y” Company of the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, the other Companies of the battalion having in turn blue, green, or yellow epaulettes.    The fusilier grenades on the collars of this tunic are another rare early element. In the spring of 1915 to differentiate their elite regular army status from the many other war-raised Northumberland Fusiliers battalions which started to emerge at that time, the proud regulars of the 1st Battalion adopted the wearing of fusilier grenades on the collars of their 02 tunics as seen here. These collar fusilier grenades were salvaged from the loose grenades of the pre war two piece NF shoulder titles which regular soldiers had in their kit but were redundant, the shoulder title design having been changed in 1913 to the one piece design that is on the tunic now.  Of the 42 Battalions the Northumberland Fusiliers fielded in WW1, only the elite 1st Battalion had such collar fusilier grenade insignia. A similar distinguishing collar fusilier grenade scheme is also known to to have been practiced in WW1 by the regulars of the Royal Fusiliers.     This elite status battalion distinguishing mark on the collar did not last long however for the 1st NF. In the deadly June 1915 Battle of Bellewaarde all of the 1st NF’s participating officers and 423 out of the 645 other ranks became casualties, this devastation of course meaning the battalion needed a large influx of new recruits to fill the losses. Those new “war" recruits to the 1st NF naturally did not have the pre war shoulder titles in their kit to take the fusilier grenades from, so they just went without this battalion collar insignia. From that time on, with such a disparate situation, the fusilier grenade on the collar simply became the mark of a veteran within the 1st NF, with over time, with the casualty rate ever increasing, fewer and fewer soldiers of the 1st NF displaying it.    To the lower left sleeve the tunic has yet another piece of rare early war insignia, this being a 1915 emergency manufacture simplified stripe to show two years “Long Service & Good Conduct". Though LSCG stripes are typical of pre war regulars this particular example is significant because of the simplified "cross weave” design used on the stripe instead of the standard chevron lace usually encountered. This denotes emergency manufacture during the British Army clothing crisis of 1915, this again exceptionally pinning this tunic down to the early mid war period. After 1916 the manufacturing and supply crisis being over such simplified stripes are seldom seen.   To the back of of the tunic there is then the evidence of the Beavis wound which froze this tunic in time. Here there remains very visible the staining of a dried blood trail. Since there is no penetration hole in this area I assume the blood trail indicates a wound to the back of the head dripping down or something similar. Little detail is known about this wound aside that Beavis survived it.    The tunic is good condition overall however it does show signs of considerable service wear as one would expect from a front line tunic.  It stills retains most of its paper size label, with here the 1915 manufacture date just visible in the upper right corner, I have circled this in my image.  The field dressing pocket has been opened and there is a War Department inspection mark just below the left armpit as viewed.     The tunic is an uncommonly good size for manikin display, Private Beavis being an unusual (for the time) 5ft 11’’. The tunic has been regimentally taken in at the sides to reduce the waist from a large 35/36 inches to a standard 32 inches. Such a modification another absolutely typical feature of the 1915 supply crisis period when the shortage of tunics meant the exact right size was not always available for issue. The tunic not being a good fit alongside its extensive wear and blood staining no doubt being a further reason for Beavis to discard and replace it upon his recovery.   In its present configuration the Battle Insignia scheme on this tunic can be used for a display demonstrating a British Infantryman in combat for any period between mid 1915 until late 1916 (after which time the red Company indicators were worn on the right epaulette only).   For the Battle of the Somme for example, the tunic is appropriate for the attack and capture of Bazentin-le-Grand by the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers on the 14th of July 1916, this during the fighting for Longueval and Delville Wood.   Finding good period photos depicting the many nuances of WW1 Battle Insignia on the front line as above is notoriously difficult, this obviously given in WW1 there were comparatively few battle embedded photographers on the Western Front, and this especially so early in the war. My final five images are for information purposes only and are not included in this sale. These illustrate as follows:  A pre 1913 Northumberland Fusiliers shoulder title showing the separate fusilier grenades as re-used by the 1st NF regulars on their 02 tunic collars circa 1915/16.  A photo taken late in 1916 showing a regular from the 1st NF with just such fusilier grenades still in wear on the collar at that time. A corporal of the Royal Fusiliers in 1917 equally shown wearing the special fusilier grenades on his collar.  A post 1917 photo showing a private of the 3rd Division’s 2nd Suffolks wearing the coloured Company indicator on the right epaulette only as per the 3rd Division’s modified Battle Insignia scheme from late 1916 onwards.  A rare clear photo showing British emergency manufacture simplified stripes of the “cross weave” type in use during the supply crisis, here on a sergeant of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915.    Finding a 02 tunic with originally applied Battle Insignia is difficult enough. Finding one as here showing an all important early war scheme alongside other known early war insignia is usually impossible as ordinarily such early combat uniforms by their very nature simply do not survive the war.