Many thanks for posting the comments gentlemen - glad to know a few members have found things of interest. As to Brian’s point about the change not appearing to be compulsory, I too noticed the wording, and in particularly the use of “permitted”, and would agree that this certainly looks suggestive of it not being an automatic change in the sense of ‘out with the old, and in with the new’. Though interestingly a similar wording was still used in the 1924 edition of the Regulations, that is in
Regulations for the Territorial Army (Including the Territorial Army Reserve), and for County Associations, but with the paragraph number now being 513:
Perhaps the only way to be sure would be to look for documentary proof, possibly amongst relevant collections at local archives or maybe within the papers of the War Office, for more precise dates of when particular TF battalions adopted the regular badge of their affiliated regiment, etc. However according to something Stephen (badjez) posted up
here, the War Office had actually already taken over responsibility for the supply of territorial badges in 1916, so presumably any new issue after the 1917 change in the Regulations would have been more likely to have been of badges with the appropriate honours rather than those without?
Having said that I’m sure that any practical change would have been slow to implement, and no doubt some battalions, as a whole, would not have made the change until after the Great War. I’m assuming men joining after 1917 would have been more likely to have had badges with honours, but equally soldiers already serving with territorial battalions would have hung onto their badges with blank scrolls, etc. Maybe photographic evidence would be one way to try and find out what was being worn by a particular battalion at a particular time, but certainly the 1917 date must be seen a significant one with regard to the badges of the territorials. If I find out anything specifically about what happened where the Leicesters are concerned I’ll be sure to post it up, and I’d hope anyone else who finds similar evidence for other regiments’ TF battalions would do the same – in fact maybe someone out there already has this information!?
Best regards
Martin
P.S. I see that in Kipling and King’s
Head-Dress Badges of the British Army, Volume I Chapter 28, they give the various territorial badges under the heading ‘The Territorial Force of 1908 to 1921”. I take it this second date is because of the changes in 1920, and the formation of the Territorial Army, rather than that the badges listed were actually worn up until 1921?