Unusal 5th Gurkha Rifles Badge
 

I was delighted to recently acquire this badge off Ashok Nath. Ashok acquired two of them from the Regimental tailors many years ago when he bought up their stock of old British insignia. It's really unusual in that the crest is in brass and the rest of the badge in white metal. I believe it's an adaption of a badge that is illustrated in the Gurkha museum's book on the insignia of the regiment. That one is all white metal and a crown (without a Lion) . The 5th Gurkhas were awarded the title "Royal" in 1921 and the crown was added to the design of the badge - but in 1927 the Regiment decided that the crown by itself was not distinctive enough and received permission to add the Lion. So either the badge was just adapted to reflect the new change in design or quite possibly this was a prototype made by the Regimental tailors/silversmiths to show what the badge would look like with Lion (using an existing crest from some other corps or regiment)- so it may never have been worn but I'm very happy that I've acquired an interesting piece of the Regiment's insignia/history
Tim

Very nice indeed!

5RGR badge
 

Interesting bit of history.

4 years ago, I posted about this unusual 5GR badge and last week I managed to acquire an example of the badge with the original crown before it was adapted. The badge with the adapted crown is possibly unique (or very nearly, only two examples exist that I know of) - however its taken me 30 years to find an example of the badge with Kings Crown and no Lion - worn 1922>1927. What is obvious is the similarity in construction between the two badges - clearly the same manufacturer. Delighted to have both in the collection now for comparison purposes.

This is the best thing about the hobby in my opinion - good research, long term persistence and then that moment when it all comes together.

Nice one Tim!