The one that started it All !

[oc14]

Back in around 1968 or 1969, inspired by my maternal grandfathers stories of his time in the Army (he served in the TA for 26 years), I developed an interest in cap badges. My Dad, like many of his generation (he was born in 1931 so was a young boy during WW2), had collected cap badges during the war. Sadly he had got rid of his collection just after the war, no doubt swopped for comics or god forbid, binned !. After persistent pestering, Dad looked through the drawers and cupboards once more to satisfy himself that he had got rid of them all. He found two items, one was a Royal Army Veterinary Corps button (Dad was in the Army Catering Corps attached to to the RAVC during his national service) the other is the item you see on the scans. A lovely cap badge for the Northern Cyclist Battalion, complete with Gaunt makers tablet behind the crown ! So this was the first cap badge in my collection - as such it will always have a special place in my affections - anyone else remember the first addition to their collection ?

Paul

[ard-ri]

My first badge was given to me by my uncle. It was a Seaforth Highlanders badge. Not sure where he got it from. I know he was a Royal Naval Commando, served in the Atlantic and the Pacific and that he was a landing craft operator at Omaha Beach on D-Day. He would never talk about the war. I never pushed him for stories. He passed away in 1975. So many memories and stories lost. Now I wish I had pushed .....a little.

[whizzbang]

I decided to get a WW1 Manchester Regiment badge to go with my Great Uncles medals. He served in the 1/6th Manchesters and was killed near Cambrai on September 27 1918. Then it was a 75th Bn CEF badge for my wife whose father served in that regiment... then the dam broke! I started collecting CEF and some British badges like there was no tomorrow...
Cheers, Ian.

[tonyb]

Found this old post and thought I might add, I started in 1971 after a friend of my dad's gave me a EiiR Royal Military Police cap badge, little did I know how much that one badge would cost me, but I would'nt have it any other way.
Tony.

[paj1]

Hi folks like a lot of collectors my first badges came from my grandad
he served in the royal engineers in ww2.he never talked about his time
in the army very much, but one day a gave me a small box which had a
mixture of cloth, metal cap badges and a few old family medals.
that was it i was hooked for life !
paj1

[Phillip Herring]

My very first cap badge was a Cambridgeshire Regiment badge. It had been given to my great grandmother by her brother who had served throughout the Great War and finished up as a sergeant with an MSM. My great grandmother gave the badge to me when I was visiting the UK in the summer of 1976. I also have his medals.
The cap badge had the slider removed and a brooch pin attached.
I will post a picture.

[Bill A]

A very common badge, a RCAMC badge, qc was passed to me one evening at the Armouries. Unfortunately, the Medical Company was being disbanded, and the donor, with some sadness, said he had no use for it anymore. The badge sat in my top dresser drawer for years, but became the first badge in my collection.

[David Tremain]

My first badges were given to me by my grandfather back in the Sixties. He was in the RA as a L/Bdr in India and Burma during the war, so he gave me a spare stripe, plus 14th Army and SEAC badges, a Royal Signals canvas shoulder flash (he was attached to the Signals for a while), and a slider with R.Sigs on it. I shared these with a friend of mine, I don't know why, so it was only about ten years ago when I restarted my collection that I acquired another Royal Signals shoulder flash, SEAC and 14th Army badge from the ones he had had framed. My parents had taken them out of the frame as it was falling apart and my father brought them over to Canada for me. My dad also brought over a bunch of other badges, shoulder titles, buttons and pips, which really got me going on this slippery slope to collecting seriously. I also had a Royal Artillery cap badge (not his), but that went astray, along with a set of sergeant's stripes.

[Old Smelly]

Like many of you, my first badges came from family. The one I remember first was my Grandads well polished RAF badge, no real value but I wouldn't part with it, 'not for all the tea in China' as they say. I have several others that came to me around the same, all fairly common but for most of them I know who wore them and where they went, priceless.
Lee

[leigh kitchen]

As an 8 or 12 yr old or thereabouts - my father gave me his King's Crown white metal Canadian Argyll & Sutherland Highlander's badge (from about 1957) on it's tartan backing & my maternal uncle's King's Crown Royal Fusilers's "brass" badge from about 1952.
A little later my father's elder brother gave me his Welsh Guards cap badge & embroidered shoulder title ( which I gave to my cousin a few years ago).

I can remember buying a Royal Berks. Regt. cap badge from a junk shop in The Old Kent Road around that sort of time, & a 17th/21st motto from another junk shop in East Lane Market, Peckham.

[2747andy]

Originally Posted by oc14

Back in around 1968 or 1969, inspired by my maternal grandfathers stories of his time in the Army (he served in the TA for 26 years), I developed an interest in cap badges. My Dad, like many of his generation (he was born in 1931 so was a young boy during WW2), had collected cap badges during the war. Sadly he had got rid of his collection just after the war, no doubt swopped for comics or god forbid, binned !. After persistent pestering, Dad looked through the drawers and cupboards once more to satisfy himself that he had got rid of them all. He found two items, one was a Royal Army Veterinary Corps button (Dad was in the Army Catering Corps attached to to the RAVC during his national service) the other is the item you see on the scans. A lovely cap badge for the Northern Cyclist Battalion, complete with Gaunt makers tablet behind the crown ! So this was the first cap badge in my collection - as such it will always have a special place in my affections - anyone else remember the first addition to their collection ?

Paul

Paul,
what size is this? Strange to see one with lugs and a makers plate, is it a cap or an OSD collar that has lost it's bronze finish?

Andy

[raesherwood]

Reminiscences. Nostalgia ain't like it used to be .

My first, and still possessed, a title 'CADETS / RE / SUSSEX' 'liberated' from a desk in the Schools CCF Armoury back in the late 1950's. Sniff, there were others ....damn.

[paj1]

As well as the badges i got from my grandad , he also gave me some photos
of him and some of his fellow soldiers in italy in ww2. nice to get them out
now and again to look at them.
paj1

[Fatherofthree]

Great thread.

In 1957 my parents moved to Hertfordshire when I was 5.

A few years later my dad had by now set up a chicken run. Aged about 9 or 10, no older, I was in the chicken run and found a badge the birds had scratched up from the ground.

An economy brass Middlesex badge, filthy dirty.

About the same time I was exploring the very old shed at the bottom of the garden and found a 2nd West Indian Regiment Officers gilt Helmet Plate in very good condition.

That was the start and over the intervening years the hobby has waxed and waned until the for the past couple of years and the present time when I'm bang at it again.

The Middlesex badge I still have, now recently cleaned and with replacement slider courtesy of Dave the Master Artisan.

The Helmet plate was swapped last year for some stuff and has since done the rounds, I have seen it on 2 dealers lists since the swap.

Regards

Brian

[Traist]

This thread brought back fond memories. I was unlucky and my Grandfather died when I was about 4. My Dad used to take out "the stuff" on a Saturday afternoon from time to time. In amongst this was a box of badges. They were my Grandfathers, and judging by the age, must have been collected by him as a boy. The only "new" badges were his SAEC badges from WW2. I always showed interest in it and when I was about 10-12, my Dad gave it to me. It was a mix of British and South African badges. My favourite in the box was a Cape Garrison Artillery and Engineer Volunteers helmet plate. Since then I have been hooked and have enjoyed every minute of it. My Dad is still always on the look out for new stuff for me, so he still helps me and participates in my hobby 30 years later. Regards Andrew