The age of these men really has nothing to do with anything. In fact the unit looked for personnel who had experience in photography and photo/film processing etc who were not necessarily front line quality. Even members of their field photographer/film sections were sometimes considered over the hill by military standards. Apart from that, most of the unit actually remained in the UK so age was not really a problem if you had the experience.
As for Badges, the unit was not granted a cap badge. They only had the shoulder titles. If this man had no prior unit or access to general list type of cap badge then he would wear nothing. This is also seen amongst the men of the 1CSSB on return to the UK from France/Italy. The unit - in particular - OR's had no cap badge and it is not uncommon to see them wearing no cap badge. Officers applied their lapel badge and ORs eventually applied anything they had.
Ken
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