My ten cents (which will be very similar to Brian's comments
)
- The badge in question. I have my doubts due to the general lack of fine detail and the amount of blacking applied.
- Lugs. I have examples for 1st, 2nd and 3rd VBs that I am quite happy with and all of them have two lugs. I can't and won't rule out genuine examples having three but my experience to date has been I've only seen them with two.
- As I understand it the smaller version was the first pattern before then adopting ones that were the same (HPC) size as the regular ones. I don't know if Essex Regt were the only unit to do this.
- For the 2VB there is an officer silvered badge, an OR blackened and I am told an SCNO version, same as OR but the castle is raised clear of the rest of the badge so stands proud.
There should be examples in my forum album and on my website.