Talk:Thomas Wynford Rees

Who are the officers in the walking photograph?

The picture of Rees walking shows two men, a tall officer facing the camera and a small officer with a neckscarf turning away from it. On first viewing, the reader's attention is drawn to the taller man, but General Slim's Defeat into Victory states that Rees was remarkably small, and both the Lewin biography of Slim and the DNB refer to Rees' red scarf being famous. Moreover, he does not have a moustache in the DNB photograph, as the tall man does. Contrary to first impressions, he must therefore be the man on the left, and I have noted this in the article.

I am not sure who the officer on the right is. His cap badge appears to be that of a field marshal. That is very small pool, and the FMs likely to be in Burma in March 1945 are Wavell (then Viceroy of India), Brooke (based in London as Chief of the Imperial General Staff) or Auchinleck (Commander-in-Chief, India). The figure in the photo most closely resembles Brooke, but his published diary should be checked to see whether he was in south Asia at that point - I've read the diary and I don't recall such a visit. Matt's talk 04:30, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

A correction has been made to the picture caption in the article; neither the 19th Indian Division, nor any other in the Indian Army, had "divisional colours". I agree that the badge was a yellow design on a red background, but Masters' autobiography makes it clear that Rees' red scarf was a matter of personal, morale-raising flamboyance. (Masters sarcastically suggested that Rees paint his jeep red too. Rees thought it an excellent idea, which he dropped only when Masters pointed out that the fire it would draw would cause unnecessary casualties to the escort and signal sections which had to follow the general everywhere.) HLGallon (talk) 12:24, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for the correction and for the anecdote, HLGallon. Matt's talk 14:54, 20 July 2017 (UTC)