Household Cavalry Cap Badges Pre WW1

[pedro alfonso]

Hello.

I have doubts regarding to the Household Cavalry (1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards) cap badges worn on both the forage cap and service dress cap before 1914.

According to the 1911 Dress Regulations for the Army, with 1913 Amendments, the badges worn on the forage cap were:

- 1st LG: The Star of the Order of the Garter, a Crown above in gilt metal.
- 2nd LG: In gold and silver embroidery, the Royal Crest, in gold embroidery, the letters "L.G.", reversed and intertwined; within the letters the figure "2".
- RHG: No badge.

I have not seen any photo nor drawing showing this badges on the forage cap, only on the field cap (this garment was not included in 1911 D.R.). On drawings I´ve seen forage caps without badges.

Please,if you are so kind to give me any comment I will appreciate a lot.

Thanks

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by pedro alfonso

Hello.

I have doubts regarding to the Household Cavalry (1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards) cap badges worn on both the forage cap and service dress cap before 1914.

According to the 1911 Dress Regulations for the Army, with 1913 Amendments, the badges worn on the forage cap were:

- 1st LG: The Star of the Order of the Garter, a Crown above in gilt metal.
- 2nd LG: In gold and silver embroidery, the Royal Crest, in gold embroidery, the letters "L.G.", reversed and intertwined; within the letters the figure "2".
- RHG: No badge.

I have not seen any photo nor drawing showing this badges on the forage cap, only on the field cap (this garment was not included in 1911 D.R.). On drawings I´ve seen forage caps without badges.

Please,if you are so kind to give me any comment I will appreciate a lot.

Thanks

Photographs that I have seen showing the forage cap before WW1, no badge at all is worn.

[john badge]

When service dress was introduced in 1902 the Household Cavalry carried on the tradtion of not wearing a cap badge in this order of dress. This continued until 1913 when the King offered to purchase a suitable badge for all three regiments.

I have seen photo's of individual troopers wearing an LG shoulder title on a field service cap?

The life Guard did and do wear the order of the garter on their full dress helmets?

[grenadierguardsman]

Whats this then ? Farrier 1st Life Guards 1890.
Andy

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by john badge

When service dress was introduced in 1902 the Household Cavalry carried on the tradtion of not wearing a cap badge in this order of dress. This continued until 1913 when the King offered to purchase a suitable badge for all three regiments.

I have seen photo's of individual troopers wearing an LG shoulder title on a field service cap?

The life Guard did and do wear the order of the garter on their full dress helmets?

I agree that no badges were worn on peaked forage caps until 1913 and that field service caps bore a shoulder title and number.

[Bill]

I thought the attachments below might be of interest.

The Field Cap shown in the 1900 Dress Regs has the 1st Life Guards Crown and Garter Star badge on it. This badge with the Victorian Crown from 1900 Dress Regs and Imperial Crown from the 1904 Dress Regs are also shown.

When I bought the Royal Horse Guards badge from this period (see below) it was completely black and looked like it had been in a fire. The Star is silver, the motto gilt, and the rather damaged enamel is blue under the garter and red to make the cross. It is slightly wider (42.5 mm) than it is high (41.5 mm).

Apologies for the quality of the photos, the front was taken with a mobile phone camera and the back with a digital camera and photo processing package that makes close up images look very grainy!

Cheers

Bill