Unknown Regiment
 

Attached is what I believe to be a regiment badge attached to the silver cartouche, of a British light cavalry officers cross belt c. 1853, though for the life of me I can not fathom which regiment it belongs too. I believe the letters are VR though the ornate font I find hard to read.

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...1&d=1443526645

Any help would be great.

Indeed the letters VR, being the cypher of Queen Victoria.

Rgds, Thomas.

Its a generic QV Royal Cypher worn by many cavalry regiments both in the UK and the Commonwealth particularly India.

regards

Ok thanks for the information. Would the same badge be on the buckle of the waist belt as this is missing.

Not necessarily, but its possible.

Impossible to say accurately without knowing the Regiment.

regards

Fair enough, that's a shame as I was hoping to be able to reunite the piece with it's relevant regimental museum.

You can often identify the regiment by the lace and buckle pattern on the shoulder belt, though there are also numerous yeomanry and indian cavalry all using similar patterns at the same time.

Sadly the buckle from the cross belt has been lost, though I will attempt to get a decent picture of the silver (possibly gold) lace.

The belt buckle would be more likely to be specific to a regiment, but as has been noted, between the British, Indians and occasional Canadian and Australian unit, there were many very similar 'looks'. Hard to be truly original within the bounds of the regulations!

Hello

It was very common for cavalry regiments to wear the cross belt only, the sword being hung on slings from a belt underneath the jacket. In this case there would not be a belt buckle. The cross belt would usually carry some adornment on the front such as a pair of spikes (for spiking guns) or a whistle.

The cross belts for some regiments were very distinctive. 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars has a gold lace depicting intertwined shamrocks.

The lace for Militia units would often be silver rather than gold. Can you post a picture of the whole cross belt as that may some additional clues.

Regards

James

Thanks for the information James,

I haven't had chance to retake these photos hopefully they will be clear enough that it can show the pattern of the braid.

I can (partially) see the WBC which has a missing overlay.
Could you post a close up of the WBC and we could probably work out what was on it.

regards

I'm not 100% sure but by WBC do you mean waist belt clasp? If so then I have taken the following pictures of it to try and get the best angle of the left over marks.

Yes,

It was a Royal Cypher of Queen Victoria (VR under crown) surrounded by a laurel wreath.

Again a non specific generic device.

regards

Blast I was hoping it might lead to a break through oh well, suppose we'll never know.