Badge Collecting in 1900

[Roy]

Greetings Ladies & Gents,

As much as I love reading antiquarian books it can sometimes be a challenge, however the rewards can often be well worth it, with little treasures of contemporary information coming to light that inform and enhance our experience of collecting and studying our passions. This happened to me last night while (slowly) working my way through a 1903 first edition of 'The History of Lumsden's Horse' - an Anglo-Indian volunteer unit that served in the Boer War. It is no secret that I have been on the hunt for a badge to this unit for quite some time and to date my good fortune in this regard has been lacking, so the search continues. However I came upon a paragraph (page 93) that not only mentions the 'shoulder badges' (of Lumsden's Horse) but also relates a story of how the locals were collecting badges to this and any other unit that happened by. Aside from my interest in Lumsden's Horse, I thought this was a really telling narrative of badge collecting in general so wanted to share it here (also shared on the ABW forum).

The date of this incident is April of 1900 and the location East London, South Africa.

"Little boys and girls (some of the latter not so very little, after all) were very keen to get hold of our shoulder badges as mementoes, and, needless to say, the susceptible ones of our corps were unable to resist the entreaties of the fair ones, and daylight showed a vacant place on many a shoulder-strap. This badge-collecting seems to be a great hobby out here just now; one boy showed me a belt simply covered with badges, which he had secured from the men of the different regiments that had passed through."

We all know that badge collecting is not a new pursuit but it's always lovely to find an early first hand account of this activity actually happening. Now I want to know what happened to that boy's belt..?

Cheerio and happy collecting,

Roy

[Chipper]

Thanks Roy, a great story and very interesting.

I too, would like to know where the little rotter hid that belt...lol

Cheers, Tim