[grey_green_acorn]

If I remember correctly (it was 33 years ago) the badge was in a small glazed frame with some anodised buttons. I think it may have been part of a larger RARDE display of metal items including munitions. If it was framed in the late 1940s (68 years ago!) I am not surprised that DRA and DCTA had no knowledge as there were no Defence Agencies until the 1990s. Following the closure of the Pimlico clothing factory, the Royal Army Clothing Department was wound up in 1933 and the store depot merged into the Central Ordnance Depot at Didcot. During the Second World War provision of clothing and stores were taken over by the Ministry of Supply; its headquarters were at Chessington and it had branches at Branston, Didcot, Farnborough and Woolwich Arsenal. On the demise of the Ministry of Supply in 1959, responsibility for military clothing and stores transferred back to the War Office.
The organization in the War Office was rationalised down to a Directorate of Stores and Clothing Development (DSCD) at Chessington, a separate Stores and Clothing Inspection Department at Didcot and a Clothing and Equipment Physiological Research Establishment at Farnborough. From 1964, the creation of a unified Ministry of Defence led to incorporation of the other services clothing and equipment requirements into DSCD. In 1967, DSCD moved to a new site in Colchester and was re-named the Stores and Clothing Research and Development Establishment (SCRDE). In 1972 the inspection work at Didcot became the Quality Assurance Directorate (Stores and Clothing) and both it and SCRDE came under the Director of Clothing and Textiles under the Director General Ordnance Services. In 1994 the Defence Clothing and Textile Agency was created with its headquarters at Andover, a Quality and Product Support Division at Didcot, a Science and Technology Division at Colchester, a Procurement Division at Glasgow and a Provisioning Division at Bicester.

Always Intersting to have mysteries in badges!

Tim