An interesting badge - 1st Armoured Regiment hat badge with a KC
 

Hi Guys,

Here's an interesting badge I was emailed about recently.

A 1st Armoured Regiment hat badge with a King's Crown.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the back of it or a high resolution one of the front.

I've certainly not seen one of these before and my theory is that someone snipped of the Queen's Crown of a 1953-60 period badge and added a King's Crown to it for some reason. Hard to say with any certainty without looking at the back.

The interesting thing is that I have seen a 1948 dated badge specification sheet showing a KC version of the 1st Armoured Regiment hat badge so it would appear that there with actually plans to produce one.

The regiment wore a chrome Rising Sun badge on their berets before being issued with the Queen's Crown version around 1954.

If I can manage to find a picture of the back of this badge, I'll post it here.

Mick

Hi Mick, did you find out anymore about this badge? Best wishes Mike

No mate - nothing more to date.

I still think its a made up badge.

Mick

Hi Mick, considering nothing has turned up in 60 years I concur, it's probably made up. Some collectors do remarkable things to their collections for display purposes, best wishes Mike

Hello,

The only one I saw with KG is this one ... OCA badge ??

http://i21.servimg.com/u/f21/11/22/13/32/oca_au10.jpg


Best regards .. Herve

That's the badge of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Association.

Still used to this day though current issued ones have a single pin instead of lugs.

Mick

Thats Very Nice !

An interesting badge - 1st Armoured Regiment hat badge with a KC
 

Gday Mick,

According to Cossum, the KC 1st Armoured Regiment badge was issued in the 1948-53 period as collar badges only with one of the collars, the LH? collar being worn on the beret. I have never seen one.

I once was a serious collector of pre WW2 Light Horse Badges but with the high cost and unavailability of so many LH badges, I ended up selling most of my collection to a badge dealer in Melbourne and buying a 20 year old Porsche 911!

About 5 years later in 2000, I commenced collecting post war RAAC badges with what I thought would be the achievable aim of completing a collection of the post war RAAC badges. KC 1AR badges have eluded me. Badge dealers such as Melbourne based Les Stillman said they have not had one for sale for several years.

Collectors of RAAC badges may be interested to know that in the 1990's I was given a guided tour of the badge makers factory in Frankston, Vic: J Cash and Son who bought out Swan and Hudson who were also in the same factory.

The manager showed me a chrome plated Rising Sun badge of the current type and told me he had been given an order for a quantity of these for approval by RAAC to wear on their slouch hat. The badge was subsequently not approved and not issued.

G'Day,

From my discussions with various knowledgeable people within the RAAC, the 1st Armoured Regiment wore a chrome Rising Sun badge on their berets prior to receiving the QC badge around 1954. Several other units (6 NSW Mounted Rifles, 15th Northern River Lancers and 7/21 Australian Horse) also wore a chrome Rising Sun badge prior to receiving their own regiment (QC) badge in the mid 1950s.

I've seen pictures of the full size chrome RSB being worn on berets but have not come across any pictures of the KC 1AR collar being worn as a beret badge.

In regards to this hat badge, I'm 99.9% certain its a fantasy badge with the QC crown being replaced by a KC one.

I also have a chrome Rising Sun badge ("The Australian Army") and was told that it was worn by the Federation Guard. How true this is I don't know - it was told to me by a Melbourne based militaria dealer.

Regards,

Mick

G'day Regimental Saddler

I have put a post on one of my previous threads for you benifit to bring it to the top, it is in the General Service Hat Badge (Rising Sun) threads and is listed as RAAC White Metal Rising Sun Badges. Have a look at the discussion on this and you will find some interesting info, I certainly did.

Enjoy.

Regards

Phil.

KC 1st Armoured Regiment badge
 

Regimental Saddler
I have attached my KC 1st Armoured Regiment collar and also a current chrome Rising Sun badge

Nice collar.

During this period (1948-53) 1AR only had KC regimental collars. They wore a white metal Rising Sun badge on their berets during this time.

Mick

Is "chrome" the correct description of the current QC rising sun, as pictured?
I have seen earlier period ACMF badges in chromed finish but I would have thought that the current badge is better described as anodised white metal.

Current Rising sun
 

The rising sun pictured was referenced as Chrome as a continuation of the thread. Anodising is usually used in conjunction with aluminium. The metal composition of the rising sun pictured is of heavier composition most likely an alloy therefore would just be referred to as white metal.