KOYLI
 

Hi All
This is a KOYLI 'smasher hat' badge, KK669. Is it original? The space behind the rose may have a sweat hole but if so it's filled with braize. The metal behind the centre of the rose is discoloured and looks like it may be braize but I can't be sure, even holding it in my hand, and it isn't clear at all in the photos. Are there any sure-fire tell tales for originality or being fake? I would have thought a genuine badge like this would have the loop in the horn hollow and the rose braized around the edge.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Alex

Hi Alex,
Your badge looks like mine and I would say it is genuine.
Cheers, Tinto

Your badge looks 100% to me, i have attached a scan of the badges i have for reference. Top badge standard KOYLI badge for size comparison, 2nd badge not quite sure, possibly pouch badge but don`t think its a headdress badge, third badge is an officers as it is bronzed, 4th badge is exactly the same as yours with a sweathole completely filled behind the rose. If you look carefully east west you might see the remains of where the lugs were fitted. The slider has been fitted at a later point.
Cheers, Dave

Hi Guys
Thanks very much for the answers, nice collection of KOYLI badges. I was about to remove my badge from my collection, but I'll keep it now.
Cheers,
Alex

Can anyone date this badge? I can find no record of it in the ACD approved patterns but I presume that it must be the first decade of the C20th. Was the lugged collar used for everything else?

Their 2nd Battalion were actually wearing them in the Cape just before the Anglo Boer War started!,
Nice things they are too!:)

Alan

see post no. 9 in this thread.

http://britishbadgeforum.com/forums/...=koyli+smasher

It wont answer all of your questions but does show Jan 04 as the approval date for the KOYLI collar badge to be worn on the Brodrick Forage Cap, Foreign Service Helmet to be fitted with a vertical shank and as the Pugaree badge without the green cloth patch. Stocks of present design to be used up.

John

Thanks. So if I read it correctly the large badge was in use prior to 1903 when it was replaced by the collar badge which was then to be fitted with a vertical shank. The collar/small size badge was confirmed for use on the 1903 'Brodrick' cap.

Presuambly the lugged collar had been is use prior to 1903 on the side cap?

I am trying to work out what would have been worn circa 1900 and it seem that the large badge is the better choice as the small one was officially a collar. The use of collars was the norm on side caps prior to the intorduction of bespoke cap badge designs around the turn of the century but the introduction does seem to have been over a number of years.

Alan

you are reading it correctly, following a request by the regiment, the WO approved in Dec. 1903 the wearing of the collar badge sized device on the Forage Cap and FSH. The badge to be fitted with a slider for this purpose.

As I do not take an interest in this regiment I cannot comment on what it replaced. When going through WO359, I saw this entry and I photographed it thinking that, as the question of the transition to a smaller design comes up from time to time, this data might prove of interest to some.

I do agree that the collar badge with loops it what was authorized for wear in the FSC.

John.

John

Thank you. I have seen a date of c.1936 (I will need to check) for the change from a slider back to split pin fixing - this time thick prongs, rather than the normal collar lugs, with a hole for the split pin.

Alan