I have examined the poor quality photo images available on the Internet and have been unable to determine what military insignia Winston Churchill wore on his overcoat in the famous photos of him, Roosevelt, and Stalin at the Yalta conference**.
Anything on his right shoulder seems to be overexposed in most of the photos. His left shoulder in many photos seems to have some sort of insignia. This photo appears to show a couple of bright “bumps” (buttons? stars?) on each shoulder epaulet. Yalta photo
I have read that he generally displayed one of two ranks during WWII – either a Regiment Colonel of the 4th Hussars or an Air Force Air Commodore. But researching the insignia related to these titles hasn’t helped. Churchill military ranks
Here is a photo of him wearing shoulder boards for the Air Commodore title: Churchill Air Commodore
There is the possibility of course that his epaulets on his overcoat are not military insignia at all. But I’ve never seen a two button epaulet.
**Why am I asking about this? I am painting pewter figurines of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin sitting in their chairs at Yalta and I want to be as accurate as possible (though I’m not going to try and duplicate the Persian rugs under their chairs. )
None of these look like what he wore on his epaulettes; has the RAF changed its insignia since 1945?: RAF officer ranks - Wikipedia
If it’s not RAF uniform, it might be Royal Army uniform, in which case I think Churchill could be displaying the crown-and-two-pips of a Royal Army colonel: British Army officer rank insignia - Wikipedia
Excuse the pedantry, but it’s not the Royal Army. It’s the British Army. It’s the Royal Navy, due to historical funding reasons, and the RAF just went with the “Royal” when it became its own branch during WWI.
That Getty photo with him removing his overcoat shows the overcoat “pips” nicely. I wish I had the magic CSI computer program that resolves magnified pixels into something recognizable.
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