Beret colours

Could someone please explain ww2 British beret colours to me? I know that maroon is paratroopers. Other than that, I'm at a loss!
TIA

 

Hi Mandy

Uniforms of the British Army - Wikipedia

Working headress is normally worn, which is typically a beret. The colour of the beret usually shows what type of regiment the wearer is from. The colours are as follows:
Khaki—Mercian Regiment, Foot Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, Royal Anglian Regiment, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, Royal Welsh, Yorkshire Regiment, Royal Gibraltar Regiment, 4/73 (Sphinx) Special Observation Post Battery RA[24]
Light grey—Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Dark grey—Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
Brown—King's Royal Hussars, Royal Wessex Yeomanry
Black—Royal Tank Regiment, Westminster Dragoons Squadron, Royal Yeomanry, Royal Artillery, Royal Logistics Corps
Dark (Rifle) green—The Queen's Royal Hussars (with broad brow band),[citation needed] The Rifles, Royal Gurkha Rifles, Small Arms School Corps, Essex Yeomanry
Maroon—Parachute Regiment, all ranks serving with 16 Air Assault Brigade (not restricted to Parachute qualified personnel) other than the non Parachute Regiment Infantry Battalion or Army Air Corps and attached Arms personnel
Beige—Special Air Service including attached troops who are not SAS-qualified
Emerald grey[25]—Special Reconnaissance Regiment
Commando green—Commando qualified personnel serving in Commando units (including the Special Boat Service)
Cypress green—Intelligence Corps
Cambridge blue—Army Air Corps including attached personnel and REME Aircraft trades
Scarlet—Royal Military Police
Green—Adjutant General's Corps (except Royal Military Police, who wear scarlet; Military Provost Staff, Education and Training Services Branch and Army Legal Service, who wear navy blue), Military Provost Guard Service
Navy blue—all other Army units (except Scottish line infantry regiments and the Royal Irish Regiment)
A regiment or corps cap badge is worn on the beret or other head dress worn in No. 8 Dress. The badge is positioned above the left eye when a beret or a caubeen is worn; the badge worn on the Tam O'Shanter sits above the left ear. Uniquely D (London Irish Rifles) Company of The London Regiment wear their cap badge over the right eye, on their cabeen.
Troops from other services, regiments or corps on attachment to units with distinctive coloured berets often wear the latter with their own cap badge. Colonels, brigadiers and generals usually continue to wear the beret of the regiment or corps to which they used to belong with the cap badge distinctive to their rank. The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers wears a feather hackle on the beret, they are now the only infantry regiment to wear the navy blue beret. Other ranks of the Royal Welsh also wear hackles.

Royal Irish Rangers
The Royal Regiment of Scotland and Royal Irish Regiment, instead of the beret, wear the Tam O'Shanter and the caubeen respectively, both of which feature hackles. The Tam O'Shanter is also worn by some UOTCs and Army Reserve units in Scotland.


TD

 

well in that case say it ................

TD

 

I would guess that those are 'todays' beret colours, although I guess many will have stayed the same since then e.g.

Black - RAC
Green - Commando
Maroon - Para Regts
Biege - SAS - may need some other members comments on when that began

TD

edited to add:
Biege SAS beret:
The sand-coloured beret of the Special Air Service is officially designated the beige beret, since it is made from material of this colour.[1] The tan beige beret was worn from 1942 till 1944. In 1944 when the SAS returned to the UK they were forced to adopt the maroon beret of the Parachute Regiment as they became part of the airborne forces. When the SAS was re-raised in 1947 as 21st SAS Artist Rifles they again wore the maroon beret of the airborne forces. In 1956 however the SAS officially adopted the tan beret again, an attempt was made to match the original sand coloured cloth beret from those in the possession of veterans. This proved impossible to do from existing approved cloth colour stocks held by the British authorities, so, as a compromise and with no authorisation for expenditure on a new colour dye the nearest acceptable colour was selected and approved by an all ranks committee of the Regimental Association. In 1958 all SAS personnel switched from maroon to beige. Personnel attached to the Regiment also wear this beret but with their own badges in accordance with usual British practice.

 

Thank-You chaps

 

My avatar shows :
Beige: Light Ack Ack (RA)
Black:: 4th QOH, RAC

Ron

 

Then there is the story of why certain Regts have certain colours. My Regt, the Royal Anglian Regiment wear khaki because the Royal Norfolks were attached to the Guards Division at some point in the Second World War. From that point until the mid-1970s, officers wore khaki berets and other ranks wore blue ones.

Then, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, it was not sensible to have this difference because it singled out officers for special attention from not very nice people with sniper rifles so the whole Regt moved across to all wearing khaki.

FdeP

 

Khaki was (I think) officially the colour of berets for the Motor Battalions. Not sure if the Recce Corps used it as well. However, I think it was unofficially used by officers in other units that would otherwise be Cap, GS.

The 11th Hussars' cap was an oddity, with a substantial brim and a beret-like crown. It appears to have been invented when they first mechanised as their take on practical headdress for use in armoured cars. 12 Lancers - also early adopters of armoured cars - resurrected the forage/sidecap long before it became [un]fashionable with the rest of the army.

 

Beware of calling WW2 headgear khaki "berets". They were in fact "Caps, GS" (General Service) which, whilst looking like berets, were much baggier and differently constructed. They were not popular. Please also do not forget that non-Commando Royal Marines did not wear green berets in WW2, rather a dark blue one with a red felt domed top rectangle on which the badge sat.

 

Only if they are khaki berets!
Now you've made me go and find Davis, he confirms they were introduced for the Recce Corps and motor battalions. They were later authorised for wear by officers of Colonel and above with BD.

 

My Grandad indeed wore one of those hideous General Service caps! Thanks all for your input

 

Mandy

One thing is certain – and that’s uncertainty! Perhaps it is natural to imagine that all things military were very standardised and laid down in tablets of stone, however that does not necessarily seem to be the case.

Your post reminded me of a quote from the history of 56 Reconnaissance Regiment at the time of their embarkation to North Africa:

“It was at this time [in Scotland] that Officers each bought something which was to become distinctive of the 56th Officers – the green beret – but these were not worn until embarkation time”.

This is illustrated in the Osprey book ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in WW2’ in a photograph of 56 Recce. The caption reads, “Note the contrasting shades of the berets – khaki for the three other ranks on the left, and green for the three officers on the right”.

Within the book are a number of references to berets of various colours and makes the point that, despite being absorbed into the Royal Armoured Corps in January 1944, an event that should have brought an immediate change from the Reconnaissance Corps khaki beret to the black of the RAC, it was not until spring 1945 before the last regiment complied.

It would appear that 43 Recce were one of the last to make the change following their reorganisation on 4 April 1945.

There is also a reference to 6 Airborne Armoured Recce, who retained the maroon berets from their original unit, the 6th Airborne Division’s light tank squadron.

Then there was 51 (H) Recce who wore something different altogether.

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/beret-changes.22170/#post-269893

Interesting to learn that they were ‘caps, general service’ as opposed to berets. There were also ‘caps, field service’ as in the photo below. From their stores inventory 56 Recce had 215 delivered on 6 August 1942, along with 10 pairs of braces – what did everyone else do!!

 

I'd started to wonder if the King's Royal Hussars Museum in Winchester had forgotten the 11 H brown beret when:


And their website has now got a page on its development:
The Origins of the Brown Beret

 

See attached photo for Rifleman (or indeed Corporal) holding (1944 Kangol) khaki beret. Introduced for motor batallions in 1942! I have a 1943 Kangol example in my collection. They were real berets, as opposed to General Service Caps which indeed were worn by infantry.

 

There are also some nice Bundesarchiv photos of khaki berets being worn by 1 RB riflemen who were captured at Villers-Bocage.

 

SAS started with a White beret in North Africa before switching to sand, and then Maroon for the D-Day landings