Early 20th Century Cameron Highlander Badges

[craigen]

Dear All

As part of a small project, I will be looking for items authentic to uniforms worn in South Africa during the first decade of the 20th Century.

My first query is about Cameron Highlander insignia and sporrans. Could anybody help with info on which insignia would have been worn by the Cameron Highlanders around 1903/4 and up to WWI? How would one distinguish those badges from copies/fakes or similar badges from other periods?

Is it correct to say that the sporran badge had no scroll, while the headdress badge had a scroll with "Cameron" on it and did the sporran or sporran badge change between the mid 1890s and WWI?

The picture below shows what appears to have been a Cameron regimental sporran adapted for use by a South African piper. The cantle decoration is a really nice piece of artistic work and the badge appears to have been an integral part of the overall decoration, rather than a separate badge attached to the cantle (I will post a better picture and more details when I can). Could anyone suggest how this might have fitted into Cameron Highlander dress during or just after the Anglo Boer War?

Thanks in anticipation for the help - I do not have access to reference works on British badges and am finding the Internet more confusing than helpful.



Regards
Craig

[leigh kitchen]

The cap badge at that time didn't have the scroll "Cameron", it was added in 1910.

[Frank Kelley]

The regiments 1st battalion was certainly wearing the word Cameron on their glengarry badges in Egypt well before they arrived in South Africa during March 1900, to play their part in the drive to Johannesburg.

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

The cap badge at that time didn't have the scroll "Cameron", it was added in 1910.

[leigh kitchen]

So presumably I'm wrong in saying 1910 - when did it change? (Canadian Cameron's changing in 1910?)
Books not to hand, memory fails........
I think Gaylor claims that the named badge was unpopular & the no-name lingered on.

[Frank Kelley]

Craig,
I don't do cantles, so with regard to the glengarry badges worn by the Cameron's in South Africa during the Anglo Boer War are much the same as those worn by the rest of the Highlander's and indeed, the whole British Army to Vereeniging and beyond, in particular the high quality of the metal used and the detail of the dies.
The basic rank and file badges are very common and South Africa was absolutely awash with them in the 1970's
Think quality and big black lugs and lashings of golden braze, the attached all came from South Africa.
Regards Frank

Originally Posted by craigen

Dear All

As part of a small project, I will be looking for items authentic to uniforms worn in South Africa during the first decade of the 20th Century.

My first query is about Cameron Highlander insignia and sporrans. Could anybody help with info on which insignia would have been worn by the Cameron Highlanders around 1903/4 and up to WWI? How would one distinguish those badges from copies/fakes or similar badges from other periods?

Is it correct to say that the sporran badge had no scroll, while the headdress badge had a scroll with "Cameron" on it and did the sporran or sporran badge change between the mid 1890s and WWI?

The picture below shows what appears to have been a Cameron regimental sporran adapted for use by a South African piper. The cantle decoration is a really nice piece of artistic work and the badge appears to have been an integral part of the overall decoration, rather than a separate badge attached to the cantle (I will post a better picture and more details when I can). Could anyone suggest how this might have fitted into Cameron Highlander dress during or just after the Anglo Boer War?

Thanks in anticipation for the help - I do not have access to reference works on British badges and am finding the Internet more confusing than helpful.



Regards
Craig

[leigh kitchen]

Is the Gordon Highlanders badge shown of white or yellow metal please? And the "Cameron" scroll badge was introduced when?

[Alan O]

The Cameron badge with scroll was sealed in 1897.

[leigh kitchen]

Thank you, I just couldn't remember the details of that one. I believe Gaylor claims that an officer was wearing the "nameless" badge on the Cameron's amalgamation into the QO Highlanders in 1961.

[fougasse1940]

The sealed pattern for this scrolled badge was dated 1897 but an account from the Regiment contends that it was first issued in 1912.
The scroll was added unilaterally by a storeman without the concurrence of the regiment and to their chagrin; allegedly this was done to remind the storemen to which regiment the badge belonged. Consequently, after the scrolled version came into use the old version was much more cherished by those soldiers fortunate enough to own them.

Lt.-Col. C.B. MacKenzie, GSO1 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem in 1944 wore his grandfathers scroll-less silver badge in his marooon beret, as on display in the diorama in the cellars at the Hartenstein Museum in Oosterbeek.

Rgds, Thomas.

[Frank Kelley]

When you say the "regiment contends" who exactly was it that actually made that claim?

Originally Posted by fougasse1940

The sealed pattern for this scrolled badge was dated 1897 but an account from the Regiment contends that it was first issued in 1912.
The scroll was added unilaterally by a storeman without the concurrence of the regiment and to their chagrin; allegedly this was done to remind the storemen to which regiment the badge belonged. Consequently, after the scrolled version came into use the old version was much more cherished by those soldiers fortunate enough to own them.

Lt.-Col. C.B. MacKenzie, GSO1 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem in 1944 wore his grandfathers scroll-less silver badge in his marooon beret, as on display in the diorama in the cellars at the Hartenstein Museum in Oosterbeek.

Rgds, Thomas.

[fougasse1940]

I don't know, see post #8 here: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/fo...ers-cap-badge/

Rgds, Thomas.

[Frank Kelley]

LOL!