[Toby Purcell]

I think the all scarlet boss badges were worn on coloured headdress other than khaki service dress caps.

There was a period when most non Scottish infantry regiments that had adopted the Austrian pattern folding field service cap when it superseded the Torin in the 1890s, favoured initially a boss type badge on the front, sometimes with an additional badge on the side. Subsequently the boss badges were discontinued by most around the turn of the century, but retained by Rifles units and the Royal Berkshires. In some cases they were worn by the battalion but not by the battalion on the Home establishment. It was quite a short lived usage, interrupted in part by the 2nd Anglo/Boer War. Surviving examples can be seen in some regimental museums, but images of them in use are quite rare, largely because they were worn with day-to-day undress.