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Old 28-12-17, 01:40 AM
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Doug N Doug N is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oregon USA
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Default Gov. Genl's Body Guard

Here’s a couple of scans showing the “Crown / Leaf” badge of the Governor General’s Body Guard. Mazeas calls this pattern a sergeant’s arm badge (MC.9a) in his pre ’14 book, and a slouch hat badge (C.3a) in his 1920-1950 book. I won’t argue, as I have never found a reference to this badge pattern in General Orders, nor have I ever seen a photo of the badge in wear.

Without documentation, it’s also a bit of a guessing game when the patterns changed from Imperial to Tudor crowns. I’m not certain if the KC is original to the sterling badge, or a post manufacture conversion. I have seen other cap & collar badges to this regiment which have been modified with crown replacements.

There is an interesting side story with the silver badge. The hallmarks are Anchor / Lion/ "f", which denote Birmingham / sterling / 1905. The maker mark is TBW, which is TB Wilkins. Wilkins registered this mark with the guild in 1903. At the time I researched it, this badge was the earliest known piece attributed to that silversmith.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg GGBG2 001.jpg (45.7 KB, 28 views)
File Type: jpg GGBG2.jpg (27.4 KB, 17 views)
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