What is this badge?
Hi there, people seem confused with what this badge is, and there seems to be a bit of guess work going on! So I will give you a difinative answer: It is a Nautical Training Corps (NTC) Female Chief Petty Officers cap badge. The NTC is a nautical youth movement similar to the Sea Cadet Corps and based around East Hampshire and Sussex. I was the first ever CPO being promoted in 1982, the rank was created to provide a post between cadet petty officers and adult instrctor officers, ranks in the NTC followed Merchant Navy ranks from 4th officer up to Commodore. Badges were originally gold and made by a naval tailors (Shcimbarts I Believe) in Queen Street Portsmouth, it was later produced in blue for females to copy the Royal Navy who had blue badges for the Womans Royal Naval Service (Wrens) though I believe they have reverted back to gold now.the corps was started in 1945 by Frank Froest Carr a former sailor in the Royal Navy and RNR
The badge may be a rarer find because it is blue, gold versions are available from Kelly Militaria and quite amazingly an NTC Officers cap badge (advertised as old shipping line badge) sold on ebay recently for a huge sum, though it was in fact just a common a garden sea cadet badge!. I've included some images for your information.
Hope this is helpful
Regards Tony.
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