Home Guard - black badges ??

[KLR]

It has recently been suggested to me that some HG units wore their local "county" badge but painted black !
Can anybody confirm this ?
(I know there is a book out there on HG insignia, but I have yet to find it and look it up)
many thanks

[Arthur]

Hi

The only reference that I have seen regarding the painting of badges comes from "In The Space Of A Single Day" by J Mills & T Carney:

HG officers were given the right to wear bronzed, officer pattern cap badges in their head-dress if bought at their own expense. Many ignored this expensive option and continued to wear O/R pattern badges which were issued in brass and white metal. A simple expedient by some officers was to paint their issue badge to look like a bronze one.

Regards
Arthur

[Alan O]

I have seen various photos of HG units but never with black badges. If it did happen then it must have been very local and certainly not standard practice across the HG.

Alan

[Unknownsoldier]

Only thing my grandfather saw when he with the HG in his extreme youth was letting the badges dull, or in some cases blackened with boot polish etc. when on 'excercises'...... possibly a WW1 hangover, never heard of them being black permanently though.

Tom

[KLR]

Thanks folks,
yes Arthur that was the book I was thinking of - I'll go and find it in the BL some time. I have heard of a bm that was "painted" OSD brown - but said to have belonged to someone commisioned in the field.
I bet the chaps having to put on then clean off boot polish were cheesed off !

Anyway, it was a thought - I've come across a few King's (1926 pattern) painted black and thought this might be the answer. I've seen many many more of the 1896 pattern painted black but I suspect that some/most are dubious attempts to pass them off as 5th Bn badges !

[Peter Brydon]

I think I have mentioned this before to Julian, the late Tim Ashley a well known Kings Liverpool collector had a khaki field service cap in his collection which had belonged to a Home Guard officer who on being commissioned just painted his bi metal Kings badge a brown/bronze colour.

P.B

P.S. I should have said that for provenance Tim acquired the cap from the original owner

[KLR]

Thanks Peter, yes, that was the badge I was thinking of, but I didn't know it was a HG officer.