A/A Wessex Bde. Silver colored

[irish]

Have seen this listed in previous threads before as a "Factory cock up" and or un-authorized. This in comparison to the gold colored badge which I assume is the standard authorized piece. This one has a stamped slider, H.W. Timings Lts B'ham. The exposure make this look a bit gold but it is definatley silver in color. Thoughts or comments always welcomed
Best
Jack

[49lassiepen]

Not sure what you mean I have a number of these on and off the beret As far I am aware worn by both 1 & 2 wessex Will post some board of these and try and find 1 & 2 wessex photos
David

[William]

Worn by both The Wessex Brigade and The Wessex Regiment. The badge is available in All Gold and in All Silver. According to John Gaylor's book 'Military Badge Collecting', the silver version was worn by Warrant Officers. I have no other evidence to offer for or against this proposition.

William

[Alan O]

Chris Marsh's book records the authorised gold anodised badge. If there was a 'WOs' silver badge then it is the Brigade rather than the later Wessex Regt. The Timings badge likely dates to the Bde 1958-68.

I was not around in 1968 but before the TA regt was disbanded I met several Wessex TA Regt WOs in 1980s and they were all wearing the normal gold badge in their berets.

I was not in the Wessex Regt but come from their recruiting area and saw lots of the regt including 2 weeks at their annual camp in Knook Camp and Hydd and Lythe Camp in 1989. Southampton UOTC also had Wessex TA staff attached including several WOs (TA RQMS and Infantry Platoon TA SSM)and they all wore gold ones.

The Regular PSIs all came from the Regular Battalions but wore the gold a/a Wessex Wyvern rather than the DofE, D and D, Hants or Glosters. Conjecture on my part but it's possible that the silver badge was an officer's plate one for the TA WO's forage cap; but it was not worn in the beret.

Alan

[hagwalther]

Hi Guys,

The trick here is to place the 'silver' A/A Wessex item next to a true silver badge from another unit. More times than not the 'silver' badge turns out to be a very light shade of gold.

Interestingly, the shade of silver seems to remain constant while gold comes in a variety of shades.

I never found an official info re: a silver A/A cap badge for the Wessex Brigade/Regiment.

Regards,

Chris

[bess55]

Gents

I have two of these examples anodised in silver (and yes they are silver in colour) marked GAUNT LONDON and GAUNT B.HAM.

As above I have heard them referred to as warrant officers etc, but have not found any supporting evidence to date.

But yet again, I wouldn't write them off as errors too soon, just because we haven't found any documentation regarding their origin yet. Wouldn't be the first badge to exist with no available audit trail.

Regards all

Bess

[Alan O]

I can't find Gaylor's claim in my version of Military Badge collecting but I remain of the opinion that it is dealers' spin and nothing more than a bad finish.

Should WOs have a different badge, and in the Wessex Bde it is unrecorded that they did, then other regt's instances were made of better quality metals and not in a/a.

I have been to the Keep and Wardrobe museums and trawled through their badge collections. There is no WOs a/a badge shown in either. The D&Ds' museum in particular has an extensive collection.