Yes, I think I have a decent sequence but I need to find the time to finish the drawings. I also want to put it into a historical context of what came before and how it evolved after so you can see where the progression is going. There was a lot of variation and evolution of insignia around the junior commissioned / warrant / senior rate insignia from the mid/late-19th Century to early-20th Century with changes occurring every few years at one point! Things like distinction lace and cuff buttons were constant features but their exact significance and assignation varied somewhat.
The three horizontal cuff buttons were originally features of officer uniforms and, on their own, the distinction mark of Warrant Officers before being extended first to Chief Engine Room Artificers and then to all CPOs. Orignially CPOs wore two small buttons vertically on the outer edge of the cuff. In time, the three horizontal buttons were subsequently removed from the uniforms of first commissioned officers and then Warrant Officers but ultimately retained for CPO. By WW2, all RN WO would wear the quarter-inch distinction lace, without buttons, which was originally the mark assigned to those with over ten years seniority. Commissioned Officers from Warrant Rank would wear standard half-inch lace alongside sub-lieutenants.
Interestingly, contemporary rank equivalence charts of the time fudge this by listing Warrant Officers, RN with Army warrant officers but specifically have notes that the naval WOs are held to be senior to all other WOs from the Army and RAF.
The context of this is that my progression for this alternative timeline will ultimately lead to the following changes:
1. Old-style Warrant Officers, descended from the "standing officers" of sailing ships, who held Admiralty warrants but were nevertheless Officers, will be merged into a unified structure of officer ranks who all hold commissions and whose distinguishing insignia is gold cuff (or shoulder) distinction lace (much as per real history — in the end, it's the only obvious solution). The course of this evolution, however, is somewhat different within my alternative hypothetical history and the status and role of Warrant Officers on my version becomes somewhat more developed than the Royal Navy allowed for in real history.
2. The Chief Petty Officer rate will (eventually) be advanced and expanded to fill the senior NCO role, equivalent to the Army and RAF WO1 and WO2, but retaining the historical link of the old "warrant officer" cuff buttons for CPOs. The initial change to nominally equate the CPO rate to Army WO3 rank would have a historical context of the Admiralty wishing to maintain parity of their senior rate with senior Army NCOs, but having this complicated by the already existing naval Warrant Officers.
This is why the navy later chooses to place two grades of CPO in this position and avoids re-establishing naval "warrant officers." When the WO3 rank is placed in abeyance, the CPO rate will become equivalent to WO2. After the existing Warrant Officers are merged into the commissioned career path, the rate will later be split into two classes, with the new CPO, First Class acquiring insignia that mark its equivalence to other WO1s.
That's also why, when I began to play with the RN WO grades, I also included the re-introduction of PO1 and PO2, and their re-alignment to equate them to Staff/Colour/Flight Sgt. and Sergeant, respectively.
Hence, ultimately, PO rates = sergeants, CPO rates = WOs.
Insignia will eventually become:
CPO1: smaller versions of the Royal Arms above the three buttons
CPO2: smaller version of the old CPO arm badge (Crown / anchor / wreath) above the three buttons.
Both grades of CPO will continue to wear the existing CPO cap badge.
PO1: to retain a crown above crossed anchors
PO2: to retain the Crown above a single anchor and cable
Both grades of PO will continue to wear the existing PO cap badge.
All of these senior rates will wear fore-and-aft rig with three rows of buttons on the jacket; POs will wear specialty marks (non-substantive badges) on the right sleeve, CPO2 will wear small specialty marks on the jacket collars and CPO1 will not wear specialty marks.
Leading Rates and below will (eventually) all move into "square-rig" and the old Class III uniform will be discontinued, although it will initially be retained for some purely non-operational administrative roles. Leading Rates will also keep their established anchor and cable insignia but when a standardised career pathway is established to achieve direct parity across all the services, they will acquire a star above their anchor and a new rate for senior ABs will inherit the single anchor, finally ending one of the longest historical associations of one insignia with a specific rank.
In later times, the junior rates will wear a distinctive metal beret badge (perhaps not unlike the brass badge of the class III uniforms, from the posts above) where POs and CPOs will wear smaller, embroidered versions of their standard cap badges (as will officers). For working dress, the insignia of the most junior rates would be embroidered in red on blue slides whereas those of the senior rates would be embroidered in synthetic gold thread. Thus it should be simple enough to distinguish between the crown and anchor of a PO2 and the star and anchor of a leading rate.
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Right, enough of that and onto other things...
I'm not sure how gorget patches for the Navy would work but, potentially, I guess they could echo the decoration on the collars of the old dress uniforms, with oak leaf and acorn decoration for flag officers, gold lace for senior officers and narrower gold lace for junior officers, leading to the existing plain white turnback patch with simple white cord twist for Midshipmen. What did you have in mind...?
As for the Lord High Admiral, like I said above, I already have the designs. I used something like you describe but I used it for the centre of the cap badge in place of the silver foul anchor; I used an ovel of crimson velvet, with a gold roped edge, and the fouled anchor emblem from the flag. A larger version of this badge, fully surrounded by a sliver laurel wreath, would be worn on the gold-faced ceremonial shoulderboards in place of the sliver anchor and wreath for the Grand Admiral. The crossed batons would change from dark blue to crimson. Buttons would look like flag officer buttons but would exchange the RN crown-and-anchor for the LAH double-fouled anchor alone. The crimson from the flag could also be used as a subtle accent colour for other uniform accessories (e.g. the morocco leather of the dress sword belt) but probably not between the distinction lace at the cuffs as it would look a little too much like the scarlet worn by medical officers. I decided not to use it as the backing colour for the gold-faced dress shoulder boards for the same reason.
The distinction lace would also incorporate some of the elements of the Grand Admiral insignia but this varied a little as I had two different versions of the LAH insignia and uniforms: one for the hypothetical alternative history and a different version that might just work as a contemporary version for the Duke of Edinburgh. There are also insignia for the associated honorary ceremonial roles of Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom and Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom (not associated with the usual RN substantive flag ranks of Vice-Admiral and Rear Admiral).
When I have the time, I'll post the pics for all of these.
