WW1 cap badge questions
 

Hi all, and greetings from Norway!

I stumbled upon this forum during a internet search, and impressed by the knowledge and helpfulness of the members, thought I might try my luck;
I am a total noob with regards to cap badges, so please forgive my ignorance :)

I have one or two questions regarding WW1 and British cap badges.

1) I want to try and collect the various regimental cap badges used by British regiments in the European theatre of war 1914-1918. Not all the variations, just a good representative badge from each)

Is that even possible? (and how much of a monetary investment would that be?)

2) Is there any way to tell if a given badge was issued prior to or during ww1,
as opposed to, say an identical badge struck in, say 1921? (assuming the regiment was still operational)

3) Did pals brigades have their own cap badges?

4) Within a regiment, would there be variations on the cap badges of the battalions?


Thank you in advance to anyone who will share there time and knowledge to answering any of these questions.

Ubervamp

Ubervamp,
welcome to the Forum, I will try an answer some of your questions as best I can;

If you mean Infantry Regiments then the badges are going to cost on average from £5-8 for common English County Regts, £8-15 for the Regts that changed badges post WW1 (c.1920's) and £30-£40+ for some of the Irish Regts. The larger Scottish badges anywhere from £8-15. These are very average figures and you could pay more or even less if you shop around!

Dating the badges is often quite difficult as most of the above wore the same badges from the late 1890's right up to the 1950's!

As for Battalion variations, the Regulars mainly wore the same badges with only the Voluteers and Territorials having variations!

Some Pals Bns had their own badges, others did not!

Before you start obtaining badges, I would recomend that you get a copy of "Military Badge Collecting" by John Gaylor, which will explain the above in more detail and also has plates of images which you can tick off as you obtain them!

Hope this helps and as a bit of self advertising, I have a good range of WW1 Infantry badges on my Ebay site, all 100% genuine of course :D!

Best regards

Andy

Hi - and thnx for your swift reply!

It answered all my initial questions, and gives me an idea of how to go about my mission :)
I will definitely obtain a copy of the book you mention.

What is the name of your ebay site? :)

Best regards,

Ubervamp

Many of the regiments were issued with all brass economy versions which have more chance of being period as they were only made then and because as Andy posted, many of the normal version badges from WWI would be the same through till after WWII. The Pals battalion badges tend to be a lot more pricey, often hard to get and there are lots of fakes about.

Remember only "26" 1916 all Gm Infantry badges were struck and there are plenty of fakes of these too plus others that were never made :confused:!

WW1 Infantry Economy Badge Album

Andy

Here is a complete set of 1st WW infantry cap badges. Guards, infantry of the line and some miscellaneous ones (territorial county regiments etc) on the bottom line.
They are just Other Ranks cap badges, not officers.
The listing should tell you which is which - in official order of precedence - and their date of issue.
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ictureid=58508

Like many boyhood collectors I gave up with cavalry badges as they were too expensive !
good luck anyway

Hi Andy,

Of course, the economy issue have been faked as well. I bought this RWF example recently which I hope is a good one, as it does not match exactly with either of the 3 you show in your album, though I think it is a good one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3506936419...84.m1439.l2649

And I just "won" this for the Welsh, but have yet to pay as I am bidding on another badge from the same seller, a forum member I think. It is a one piece strike as far as I can see which should make it a good one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3308714484...84.m1439.l2649

Ubervald if you go to the CLASSIFIED section you,ll find members offloading spare badges at reasonable prices than dealers! and of course you are fairly certain to not getting a restrike this way! until such time as you get an understanding for what you wish to actually collect, you,ll also find various books on there as well, over a period of time you will gradually build up what you need, Peter Doyle and Chris Foster,s book BRITISH ARMY CAP BADGES of the 1st WORLD WAR is a good place to start, this gives a broad spectrum of the period with Economy-issue badges and Volunteer & Pals battalions, as to these they go for hundreds of pounds you may wish to collect originals only but you,d need a serious amount of cash perhaps these can obtained if you are lucky but maybe by collecting a copy of these regiments only you can pick them up for a few pounds! as members have already said some badges in use prior to 1st W.W. went on till the 2nd, also as battalions were raised beyound the normal 2 these adopted either a similar badge to parent unit or took for instance a collar-badge to wear as a cap-badge these could and usually were different from the regular,s badge even button,s ended up being used loads to learn but lots of help given freely if I have something wrong another member will clarify and add to what i,ve written good luck!

(check out books written by members top of forum site-also Amazon has used copies of this book also Gaynors and Kipling & King, take your time as this last book Vol 1, I have seen as low as £25 but can go for as much as £65 )

A huge thanks for these helpful replies to my original posting :)

It has given me the exactly the info I was hoping to get.

Ubervamp