During the Second World War the Royal Navy increasingly used shoulder boards for displaying officer’s rank. Whilst traditionally the navy had used cuff ranks, but shoulder boards were used on working dress, tropical uniforms and other instances where an officer was not wearing the traditional blue double breasted uniform. These shoulder boards were made of dark blue wool with a slight curve to them to follow the contours of the shoulder:

The rank is applied n the form of gold braid, here the squared off loop of a Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Sub Lieutenant. At this date some branches still had a distinguishing colour and this one has the cream of the pay branch below the braid:

A single gilt button is fitted at the end of each board, with the King’s crown above and anchor:

To secure the shoulder boards to a uniform, a pair of tapes are sewn to one end. These would pass through loops and be tied off to ensure the shoulder board did not become detached:

Here a pair of shoulder boards can be seen being worn by an RNVR lieutenant on his tropical uniform: