Code: 58469
A very nice and scarce WW2 Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm White Summer Tunic to a Sub-Lieutenant Pilot.
This Tunic is part of a grouping all to the same man which I have reluctantly decided to break up and sell individually as it is unclear what the name of the original Pilot was.
Made of crisp white cotton, this Tunic is in a good wartime configuration. This shown by there being standard Royal Navy officer’s buttons throughout but to the dark blue shoulder epaulettes a single row of zig-zag bullion rank tape for a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Sub-Lieutenant.
Post- war the RNVR adopted standard straight Royal Navy rank tape with the buttons reverting to the letters “R and V each side of the Anchor.
In WW2 all wartime enlisted personnel to the Royal Navy were categorised as RNVR to differentiate them from the pre War professional Royal Navy.
To the inside of the rank curl on the epaulette is a bullion letter “A” for the Fleet Air Arm branch, then pinned to the left breast a very nice detachable set of bullion King’s crown pilots wings, this the correct position for the wings on the White Summer Tunic.
To the inside collar there is the remains of a name but this too is difficult to make out. There also appears to have been something sewn on top of this at some time but this has now fallen away.
All buttons are detachable for ease of laundering as is standard on the Summer Tunic.
A clear image of this type of uniform in use by the FAA in WW2 can be viewed at this link:
https://britishbadgeforum.com/forums/threads/faa-shoulder-boards-and-cuff-insignia.64848/
In very good service used condition with with some staining which I have shown in the images.
A lovely wartime FAA Pilot’s Summer Tunic.
