Blackened GV RE Cap Badge
 

Can anyone advise me on this GV RE cap badge I recently acquired? It has been blackened in a similar way to Rifle Regiment badges of the period rather than painted by the owner. Is there any significance to this variation?

Thanks

Mark

Blackened RE
 

Mark,
I have one of these, I have kept it as a variation, but I'm not sure as to if it has any special significance.

Rob

In some circumstances badges were blackened to avoid shine while in action. This occurred in New Zealand units especially in the Sinai-Palestine campaign.
Tinto

I posted another thread regarding an ASC badge that was blackened or bronzed a la OSD badges. Although the badge in question appears to have a blackened finish, well here is one of the replies:
I have a RAOC 1918 Pattern Cap Badge with Slider which has been bronzed, and I am informed that the WWI & WWII Officers Shops (ran by Ordnance) had a range of regimental badges bronzed for Field Commissioned Officers and that Ordnance & Service Corps Workshops did them as well, possibly for the Officers of their own Corps as well as for the Officers Shop and others? This was also done in India & the Far East because supply times for such items were long.

CB

Bronzed other ranks badges
 

I am sure this must have happened many times and a bronzed die-struck other ranks cap badge was far superior to a sandcast effort made locally.

Rob

Here's a thread where I asked the same question, it went off topic but prior to that it was suggested they were early WW1 prior to the common issue of the tin helmet.

Rob

https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...eers+blackened

Thanks to you all for your time and knowledge. It a badge I will keep as it has real shape and character.

Regards

Mark

Bronzed Middlesex with a slider
 

Among my recent haul of goodies there was a Middlesex badge which I thought was a very dirty 1916 issue, after a soak in vinegar and a gentle scrub with soap and water it turns out to be bronzed with a bronze slider, all one piece badge.

As there were 46 Battalions serving during the Great War it would be almost impossible to work out when, where or how this badge happened to be as it is, the fascinating thing about badges and collecting them.

Rob