Wellington College (Berks) Cadet Corps

[4966Ian]

Hi there,

I have these two helmet plates to the Wellington College Cadet Corps (circa 1882 - 1901)*. Also sometimes known as the Wellington College Rifle Volunteers.
* Formed 7th October 1882 and subsequently affiliated to the 1st VB Berkshire Regiment)

As you can see they are almost identical (both being 90mm high and 64mm wide), except one is voided (even including the spaces between the legs of the 4 lions legs at the angles of the cross). So my question is this. Is the voiding/non voiding just down to different manufacturers or the use by Officers/NCOs and O/Rs? Or any other reason?

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Ian

[Peter Brydon]

Ian,

I am not able to help with this specific query,there appear to be few books which deal exclusively with Cadet insignia and I am having some difficulty in finding exactly what badges were worn by some Liverpool cadet units even in the 1960`s and 1970`s.

Matti`s album showing some anodised cadet badges is a great addition to the information available.

When it comes to Home service helmet plates particularly for the non regular forces the available information is spread out amongst a lot of books and articles.

The only thing I can say is that there are examples of ,in the case of Rifle Voluteers,of officers wearing better quality helmet plates than other ranks and NCO`s where the same design of plate is worn throughout the unit.

Some times this also extended to NCO`s wearing plates of better quality and different metals than the OR`s. In the case of Volunteer battalions some NCO`s appear to have had better quality Helmet plates and glengarry badges than OR`s ( sometimes silver plated rather than white metal )

I know this does not help your query, even Kilpling and King show only a representative selection of Volunteer badges.

I hope someone may be able to help with this specific query,it does show what little information is available in respect of some aspects of our hobby

P.B.

[4966Ian]

Hi Peter,

Many thanks for your reply, as you say possibly not helping with my enquiry in this case, but very informative all the same.
You never know, somebody else on the forum might have an answer. In the mean time I will keep on looking in books etc.

Many thanks for your time.

Ian