Brigade badges in a/a
 

If infantry brigades existed from 1958 to 1969, did a/a cap badges continue to be made after the brigades ceased to exist? I have a few brigade badges that are stamped Gaunt B'ham, but I understand Gaunt didn't move to Birmingham until the 1970s. Are these fakes?

Sorry if it's a silly question!

The Gaunt Birmingham marking's been reappraised as being introduced in the early 60's.
Some Brigade badges continued in use as regimental badges following the dissolution of the Brigades eg the Fusilier Brigade badge used by the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers formed in 1968. In the case of that badge details such as the lug fittings will indicate whether it was made during the Fusilier Brigade or RRF era.

Thanks Leigh - much appreciated.

It'll take a bit of searching on the forum but references to the change of thought re. the introduction of the Gaunt Birmingham mark crop up in a few threads.

From what I remember discussion on forum bumps the date back to probably at least 1964.

A quick forum search shows Chris Marsh's suggestion of c1966-67 re. Gaunt Birmingham.
A more intensive beating of the forum bush should bring up references to earlier possible use of the mark.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...unt+Birmingham

There seems to be a fair amount of Forester Brigade (1958-1964) badges around with the Gaunt Birmingham mark.

There are Bde badges made with Gaunt Bham as early as 1964 (the East Anglian Bde ceased to wear that badge in that year).

Hoot has already mentioned the other Bde that had an early end-date. This suggests that the 1969 date is incorrect.

A bit of research will give you the dates that the brigades existed from and thus date which badges were worn.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ad.php?t=34586

Rgds, Thomas.

The Green Jackets Brigade ceased in 1966 and wasnt worn after. I have a Gaunt Bham amongst my variants . The Home Counties,the Foresters and East Anglians are the only others that didnt continue to be worn after the end of the Brigade system.