There had been a Gurkha provost company in existence since 1 June 1950 - they wore the insignia of the Royal Military Police, in September 1955 the Gurkha Military Police came into being . In 1956 Major B Bonniface was the officer commanding 17 Gurkha infantry division Provost Company and took it upon himself to design and produce the insignia for the unit which he described in RMP Journal of 1957. (2nd qtr) He was formally rebuked in the next issue of the same journal as being “premature “ and two years later in June 1959 the design of the new approved insignia were sealed. So the Boniface badges were never “official” but they were the only ones worn for about two years. A relatively small unit the badges are quite rare - the very first ones produced had lugs , the last batch were produced with sliders. O/Rs in Brass or White Metal, Silver/Chrome for Warrant officers and Silver & Gold for officers. I think if you put it on eBay you’d get north of £80 for it. Cheers Tim
|