14th Hayle Battalion Cornwall Home Guard
 

A friend in Cornwall asked me about this yesterday when he saw a British 1st Army shield formation badge in Bodmin Museum described as worn by this Home Guard Battalion, I suspect the museum has it wrong, Jon Mills has it shown in his book (In the space of a single day) as the red tower with sword held aloft above, (plate XXIII).

Any thoughts please.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Such a badge is illustrated in "Military Insignia of Cornwall", Fig.330, Described as "Battalion Badge, 14th (St. Ives) Bn. Printed, a hand holding a black sword, from the top of a red tower with a black 'XIV' across it, on a khaki rectangle".

Cheers, John

Hope this might help...

Chris

Closer pic...

This is apparently what they have displayed, I don't know when 1st Army adopted it but I suppose the question is could it have been used in Cornwall earlier or is it just an error in the museum?

Rob

Seeing as these signs were, in theory, at least very rare, down to battalion level, does anyone know why they always seem to be available to buy on ebay, militaria websites, fairs etc? How do you tell the repros from the originals?

I was wondering this myself, i own the formatuon signs for stratton and newquay. A couple seem to be quite hard to find but others are readily available when in theory they should be scarce