Having studied contemporary photos for several decades I think it’s true that there is some confusion regarding pagri badges. In the officers dress regulations of 1900 metal badges were stipulated and there’s no doubt that before the 2nd Boer War some were worn by officers and men in overseas stations where pagris/puggarees were authorised (for quite a number of stations they were not authorised and these are listed in clothing regulations). What happened was that the overriding focus was on South Africa and operational realities at that time and instead of metal badges the vast majority of line regiments adopted cut off cloth shoulder straps taken from their scarlet undress frocks and fitted them to the sides of their foreign service helmets. Between the two World wars things changed and there are numerous photos from around 1930 where cloth badges on the side are eschewed and instead metal badges, positioned on the front of Wolseley helmets are adopted instead.
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