Bulgarian Officer, 1914.

The back of this photo is marked 1 June 1914, town of Knyazhevo. The uniform is the tobacco-brown enlisted men’s coat introduced in 1899 with solid red cuffs added in 1906 (previously the cuffs had been only red piping). The rough woolen material is a traditonal Bulgarian product called “shaiak.” Tri-colored piping (white-blue-red-white) on the red shoulder straps indicate a student at the Reserve Officers’s School.  I cannot make out the monogram on the shoulder straps, but I wonder if it is a crowned “F” for Tsar Ferdinand.  Click here for a closer view.

Page by Mark Conrad, 2005.