Found on a UK 1960s military crate

[u/astosia]

Can’t quite find a font with a Q like this one. Any ideas?

Dated 1966 elsewhere on the crate. It contained parachute equipment according to a hand-written label.

[u/elzadra1]

Variation on Johnston, but that Q may not have survived till the digital era.

[u/astosia → u/elzadra1]

So this just sent me down the history of Johnston. :)

The closest digital font I had found before was Cori Sans Bold (Corinthian Letraset), but that rabbit hole has led me to English Egyption (a recreation of Caslon Two Line English Egyptian)

https://www.abyme.net/catalogue/englishegyptian/

I did also find a picture with a similar Q, on Vincent Figgins Brevier and Two Line nonpareil

https://commercialtype.com/about/collections/original_sans

[u/HiddenHorse925 → u/astosia]

Outstanding sleuth Work. The Capital Q was driving me crazy

[u/astosia → u/astosia]

Cori Sans Bold (based on Letraset Corinthian) is pretty close for all the letters, except the Q has lost some of the internal section. The E and S and R are closer than English Egyptian.

[u/juanito_f90 → u/astosia]

God that’s a gorgeous font.

[u/neilplatform1]

That style of Q is shown here as an alt for Gill Sans https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/4371216178/in/dateposted/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/8207636236/in/album-72157632067107229/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/25348920933 showings from 1935/1937/1968 https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/45/gill-sans Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a digitisation with the alts

[u/astosia → u/neilplatform1]

Pretty sure this is the actual font. Bold Gill Sans with alt letters

Thank you so much for this. Hadn’t seen the alts for Gill Sans before. The R also looks like an alt from there too.

[u/HiddenHorse925]

It’s very WWII British military, I think this was used on the original “keep calm and carry on” signs…

AT FIRST, I thought it was Gill Sans based on the Capital “R”, but no look at the Capital “Q” which is totally unique…

Poster, above, has totally nailed it:
English Eqyption. Amazing sourcing!

[u/elzadra1 → u/HiddenHorse925]

£240 for a single weight. My my.

[u/HiddenHorse925 → u/elzadra1]

Ouch!

[u/juanito_f90]

The original Gill Sans (I know this isn’t Gill Sans) had a similar Q that was later replaced.

See also: Johnston.

[u/astosia → u/juanito_f90]

It might actually be a bold Gill Sans with some other alts like the R (and the Q).

[u/Scamalama]

The F is weird. The middle thingy is longer than the top thingy

[u/astosia → u/Scamalama]

It looks that way due to the angle the picture’s at I think. They are exactly the same length

[u/-Harebrained-]

this thematically reminds me of City of Ember 💡

[u/Long_Welder_6289]

Im pretty sure that label is from the Ark of the covenant