Brunswick Star?

[Bill A]

Two questions, how many units in the Canadian army used the Brunswick Star as the basis of their badge design? And, was permission required to use the Brunswick Star in the badge design? (Being it was much like the Royal Garter, one suspects that it may have required royal approval.)

[Bill A]

No thoughts on these questions?

[DavidS]

Beyond more obvious ones like the RCR, Halifax Rifles, Wentworth Regiment, Toronto Grenadiers, Irish Regiment, etc., would you include 'sort ofs' in this? West Nova Scotias, Irish Fusiliers/Vancouver Regiment, even the GGFG seem at least permutations of the 8-pt star design.

[Bill A]

Hi David, Perhaps that is a starting point. Which badges are based on the Brunswick star? Many pre-1914 helmet plates use the star as a backing plate, eg the helmet plates for the RCD. The star appears to have been the basis of the generic backing plate to which the regiments then added their unique centres. And the series of 1908 ter-centennary plates were based on the star.
Some other 20-53 period units that use a star on the badge include the Royal Regiment, Northern Pioneers, Middlesex and Huron Regt, Midland Regt, Northumberland Regiment, SSMR, SSMR & S R, Carleton & Yorks, York Regt, 2nd pattern Levis R, South Sasks, Irish R, and last but not least RCASC.
Still begs the question, was the star design a generic pattern or was it bestowed / awarded?

[DavidS]

Bill:

Further to things to think about: the Brusnwick star is just one component of a whole -- the star, garter and motto (Honi soit qui mal y pense) all make up the Order of the Garter, and I'm thinking this is where these designs originate. Specifically, any "Royal" regiment would/should be entitled to the package. Hence, the Royal Canadian Corps of Engineers, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps and Royal Canadian Army Ordnance Corps -- who use all three elements on their respective badges -- would, I think, be entitled to them by virtue of their authorised "Royal" designation.

Similarly, the Royal Canadian Regiment, Royal Regiment of Canada, Royal Regiment of Toronto, etc., would (since again the "Royal" designation is authorised) have the same privilege, so any elements there should be okay.

This begs the question, then, of whether corps like the Canadian Army Pay Corps have any similar entitlement because of the "Canadian" corps status, or if they just winged it regarding the star because they could get away with it.

Gets very iffy, arguably, with regimental badges for non-Royal regiments such as the Midland Regiment (which uses the buckled garter, motto and star of the Order of the Garter extant), and many others. I'm thinking of the number of unauthorised buckled garter badge regiments which got their wrists slapped after going overseas and had to have non-buckled badge versions made as a result.

As for the star itself, I ran across a thread in the Great War forum talking about this and there was mention of 'other' 8-pointed stars approved for regiments like the Irish regiments, etc., so maybe A star isn't necessarily THE star? This may explain the Irish Regiment of Canada, but how about the South Sasks, Halifax Rifles or the Wentworth Regiment? "Sisterhood" may have something to do with it, so in the case of the Halifax Rifles, for instance, would descent from or affiliation with a British regiment carry any privilege with respect to badge design?

A final thought; as a graphic designer, I see a lot of that 'this looks good, let's copy it' mentality when it comes to folks ripping off other folks, never mind the added heraldric aspect of badge symbolism. When it came to badge design, especially for a 'backwoods Canada' militia regiment, it seems to me that commanders were pretty loose with formality over things like authorisation for buckles, stars, etc., and a lot more concerned with looks, tradition, personal preference, or maybe even just 'I want it to look like my old regiment's' sentiment, hence the aforementioned wrist slapping when they got overseas.