WW2 British Prisoner Of War Shirt?

Anybody please got any ideas on this,was told it could POSSIBLY be some form of POW shirt.

Faint broad arrow ink stamping but cannot make it out 100%.

Thanks

Could be, though I'm unfamiliar with this type. The construction and materials are consistent with something that would be used by prisoners (i.e. cheap!). The black diamond aspect is actually quite clever. A diamond is cut out of an already manufactured shirt and a quick black patch is applied over the opening. Why is this clever? Because if the prisoner escaped he couldn't simply remove the black diamond or somehow dye the shirt to cover up an ink stamp (US liked to use "PW" on shirts and trousers) to avoid attracting attention to himself.

I'd cautiously consider this a PW item, but more evidence is needed. Try the Imperial War Museum staff. They might find this interesting enough to research for you if they don't know off the tops of their heads.

Steve

Thanks Steve.

The ink stamp is similar to the way a lot of Indian made WW2 items were stamped?

ww2 Italian prisoners of war , black diamond signified a supporter of musilini and therefore a political prisoner, ordinary Italian prisioners in belfast wore grey shirts but political ones wore the diamond on the back

I seem to rember seeing these type of jackets in a tv documentry about Italian POWs in the 80s Nice peice mate

Thanks Graham and by any miracle dont suppose you remember what the prog was?

It was in part about Iti POWS who worked on farms in Wales who were fratenising with the female residents of the farms while their men were away on active service but I dont remember the name it was best part of 30 years ago

Just done a quick Google search and a few pics of Italian POWs with shirts that certainly LOOK like mine but pics not clear enough.

Wish I would have asked more when my old man was alive as he said there were a lot of Italian and German POWs around here in North Wales working in farms etc.

Nice one!  I would absolutely assume this to be legitimate.  It's not the sort of thing that would be faked and there is bound to be a huge range of variations as I doubt they had only one contract that produced only one type of uniform for the entire war and the immediate post war period.  These were meant to be cheap and functional, everything else third priority

When doing a search for the black diamond shirt I found a similar Canadian shirt with a big red circle on the back.  That one was for Jewish refugees that were interned (to use a polite word) after WW2.  Poor blighters went from internment with bad garb and yellow stars to internment with bad garb with red circles.

Steve

A quantity of these appeared on the market several years ago, together with shorts in the same material. They are definitely Indian made - the circular stamps are Indian ordnance acceptance marks. The shorts had a strip of black material let into the side seams. The explanation at the time was they that were intended to be issued to Japanese PoWs - hence the small sizes!

CollectinSteve wrote:

When doing a search for the black diamond shirt I found a similar Canadian shirt with a big red circle on the back.  That one was for Jewish refugees that were interned (to use a polite word) after WW2.  Poor blighters went from internment with bad garb and yellow stars to internment with bad garb with red circles.

Steve

I had a denim piece awhile back that had the large red "sun" on the back. With it were photos of German Kriegsmarine POW's working on farms in Canada.

Bob, that sounds like the same one I saw associated with interned Jewish refugees in Canada. Unfortunately having Jews wear the same distinctive prison outfits as their former persecutors fits in with the little I know about the poor treatment they received. Here's an article with a picture of the shirt in detail and in use:

http://www.jta.org/2013/03/31/arts-entertainment/exhibit-recalls-jewish-refugees-and-nazi-prisoners-held-together-in-canadian-prisons

Steve

Steve-Thanks for the link.
Very similar except the one we had, was a dark indigo blue denim jacket, but same red circle on back.

Some Jews were interned with... believe it or not... German POWs. So it would follow that if they were in the same camp they got the same clothing.

I would expect a wide variation in materials, tailoring, buttons, etc. for POW clothing. "Good enough" procurement seems to be logical.

Steve