['Ticker' Riley]

Hi Dean

It’s been a long time since we were last in touch, and longer still since I last actively contributed to the Forum. Life generally conspires to keep me from ‘things badges’, but your latest posting has prompted me to drop by, if only to make a few observations/comments. Firstly, congratulations on your latest acquisitions from actionoke, you’ve certainly got some lovely items here. As you’ll be aware I do not profess to be an expert on military accoutrement, so am not in a position to help you with most of what you’ve bought, but given my research into the Leicesters’ tiger cap badge I was particularly interested to see the officer’s silver and gilt example.

You may well be right inasmuch as this collection, including the cap badge, do date from the time of the Boer War, and could well be connected to the 3rd Battalion of the Regiment. However, I’m not sure the fact that the cap badge has loops (lugs) is as significant as you think. It is certainly true that ORs’ badges like this would be pre-1903, but as far as I was aware Officers’ S&G badges do normally have loops as opposed to other fittings - at least the other Leicesters ones I’ve seen have loops. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong about this. Anyway, I still think there is a good chance the badge in question is early, but I don’t believe this can be determined simply by it having loops I’m afraid.

Although it’s not that obvious from the photos, I assume that most of the gilding on the front has actually rubbed off? There also looks to be a fair bit of wear on the titles, especially the bottom ‘Leicestershire’ scroll, perhaps because of the way it has been cleaned in the past?? The badge also has what I would have thought was a quite unusual feature, and that is, when you look at it from the back, there is a substantial section of the bottom of the badge taken away, right in the middle of where the bottom title scroll goes across. I would have expected this to be solid, but perhaps this was the easiest way for this particular manufacturer to get a gap between the bottom title and the grassy base when looked at from the front?

I do realise that some of the above is just questions rather than answers, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing my observations with you. Taking of observing, I see your Leicestershire album has quite a few additions in it since I last looked, one of which is a particularly nice Territorial OSD badge. I’ve only seen a couple of these badges for the Leicesters, and sadly do not have one myself – you really must let me know your sources!! What’s intriguing about this is the north-south orientation of the blades, rather than the normal east-west. No doubt some other member will be able to enlighten us on why this was the case, but presumably it has something to do with the headgear upon which it was worn, and by extension the period?

Well, I’ll leave things there for now, and congratulations again on the recent purchases.

Best regards

Martin