KDG Officers badge hallmark

[colin 17]

Can anyone confirm a hallmark from this badge? It looks to me like 1992 and L B & Co. It has a anchor and lion which is Birmingham. It comes on a peaked cap that I am going to be putting up for sale.

Colin

[David Tremain]

Colin, could it be LB & B - London Badge & Button Company?

Email sent.

David

[3748 Hussar]

Colin,

It would be QDG not KDG

Regards

Tony c

[colin 17]

Is it QDG and not KDG because of the possible date of 1992 or is there a difference in the badges? The cap it came off has KC KDG buttons and the badge has been on the cap a long time and thats why I want to verify the hallmark.

Colin

[sketchley kid]

Colin can I suggest that it was possibly a serving KDG that became QDG through amalgamation?
Are the buttons the 'Star' KDG?
Pity it's been 'Beezed' to death!!
One difference is the strip between the head and wing tip.

[colin 17]

Yes, the buttons are the star pattern, one piece (is that ors pattern?). It is the coloured peaked cap. If the hallmark is 1992 I would assume that it was an older cap being reused or it could have been a fathers cap? Amalgamation was in '59 so that would be a long time to switch badges!

I had heard that the shield was polished like that for a reason?

Colin

[sketchley kid]

Don't believe it...it's a QDG myth!

[David Tremain]

Robin Hodges' book 'British Army Badges' shows a cap badge to the QDG highly polished. It may have been there that I read the same thing about it being a tradition to polish off the detail. Is there any Forum member who is serving/ex-QDG who can confirm this?
David

[Alan O]

I am not nor ever have been QDG but I can vouch for the fact that the ORs do have a fondness for polishing the eagle completely smooth. I think this has more to do with looking like an old sweat rather than any notion of removing a foreign crest.

[sketchley kid]

I was KDG and we certainly didn't 'beeze' em to death like that.
(To 'Beeze' or 'Beezing' taken from training Regt where we used the yellow felt pads from the 'BESA' ammo boxes on the floor bumpers.....give it a good beezing!!)
I think the original myth came about from polishing off the Hapsburg Austrian eagle....never heard it it my time.

[colin 17]

Very interesting. If you look at my badge it certainly looks like the shield was specificaly polished where the rest of the badge still has all its detail.

[sketchley kid]

This story turned up on one of the QDG facebook sites with no satisfactory explanation...only B***s***!
Until recently you could buy silver cap badges from the QDG shop, made in Bham..'Bickertons' ...same badges are available on the ebay KDG page....£95!!!!!!

[Peter Brydon]

When the Liverpool Scottish reverted to the pre 1908 glengarry badge when they ceased to be part of the 51st Highland Volunteers , a hall marked silver badge was ordered , I believe it was made by the London Badge and Button Company and in fact they ( the Liverpool Scottish Mueseum ) refer to that badge as the "1992 purchase ".

It used to be possible for the hall marked silver badge to be ordered through the regimental museum.

http://www.liverpoolscottish.org.uk/~liverpo4/shop/

It appears therefore that the L.B. and B. Co may have been making hall marked badges for at least 2 units in 1992.

P.B.

[colin 17]

The hallmark is an anchor with a lion which would be Birmingham wouldnt it?

[Peter Brydon]

Its all here:

http://www.925-1000.com/british_marks.html

P.B.