MYSTERY BELTS - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

CAN YOU HELP TO IDENTIFY
THESE MYSTERY STABLE BELTS?


    SUGGESTIONS

    SECOND (bottom) BELT

  • I was told a long time ago that this belt (blue, white, red, blue) was worn by the Royal Marines United nations Contingent Diego Garcia
  • I bought it some years ago from a shop in Plymouth that I visit fairly regularly, it is owned by an ex RM. It was he who told me about it. He said it is worn by RM (& possibly any other GB forces ?) when on UN duties. He specifically spoke about Diego Garcia - where, apparently , we have a permanent small detachment of RM working for the UN.
  • As the United Kingdom owns the island, there are British Representatives on Diego Garcia, responsible for law and order on the island. The British Representative, or BritRep, acts as the Commanding Officer for Naval Party 1002, as well as the local magistrate and judge for all legal matters dealing with British law. Under his cognizance are the British customs personnel, Royal Overseas Police Officers (ROPOs) and a compliment of Royal Marines, who patrol and protect the entire BIOT. The 50 Royal Marines who did ROPO and other BIOT duties, probably wore this belt.
  • I have looked at the image and there is nothing like it in our collections. Having looked at the colours I checked what material we had from Royal Marines who served with the UN in Cyprus. From the items which were given to us these did include UN berets, brassards (armlets with UN badge) and even a blue UN cravat. This material did not include a stable belt, which one would have naturally thought would have been part of the 'set' of UN type items. This suggests that these belts were not used by Royal Marines on UN duties in Cyprus. Regarding the potential use by the RM detachment on Diego Garcia, this partly is an official Naval Party 1002, rather than a UN operation so I think it is unlikely to relate to that area eiter. With thanks to Ian Maine, Curator, Royal Marines Museum
  • The lower picture is the Royal Navy stable belt, it was an optional (bought item) worn by Fleet Air Arm ‘Commando’ squadrons. I don’t think it was ever an actual recognised issue, but worn by ‘junglies’ to differentiate them when working with the Army and RAF. I remember them being advertised for sale on Daily Orders during the ’80 when I was based at RNAS Yeovilton. I never actually saw them worn by non-FAA people even when onboard Fearless and having the ‘Amphibious Warfare’ Staff embarked, although it was a ‘Tri-service’ organisation. Come to think of it, I never saw it being worn by any navy people at Northwood when we became a ‘Purple’ HQ, although the Army and RAF wore theirs, plus we never wore Lightweights/DPM as our normal working rig, which probably explains it!
  • I can confirm that the lower belt is RN, as worn by FAA aircrew. One of my FAA colleagues at HQ JHF(NI) wore it with Cbt 95 just before Gulf War 2
  • Nov/Dec 2006, top belt. It is the Third East Anglian Regiment, later the 3rd (16/44th Foot) Bn, The Royal Anglian Regiment, The Pompadours, (Bedfs/Herts & Essex). The R Anglian former battalions were involved in the capture of Gibraltar and this may be why the colours are similar to those of the R Marines.


Contact me if you recognise this belt -
intelligence@stablebelts.co.uk

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