Captain Nicholson is wearing the bronze pattern Sphinx cap badge shown in my Lincolnshire album
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ictureid=51189. Now shown below. This is also shown being worn by a number of Officers in a group shot of the 5th Bn in Dunstable in 1914 alongside a number wearing star pattern Lincolnshire Regiment Officers cap badges. Nicholson in one of them and he was Lt in the 1914 photo. These bronze badges were worn from 1898 through to at least 1914. They are die cast Sphinx with a flat backed Lincolnshire scroll, lugged and non-smiling, non- Art Deco faced without the swan neck, all in light-coloured bronze metal. It is my view that Swan Neck badges are WW1 variants and are not seen on post-1898 pattern Sphinx badges that were lugged and short and long slidered. swan neck badges are only wth sliders also in my experience.
This is not a blackened badge, regards Dean.