Iraq levies

[Eddie Parks]

The Iraq Levies
Badges and Insignia

The Iraq Levies started life as a small unit of 80 horsemen called the Muntafiq Horse or Arab Scouts raised during the Great War. From the time of it’s first formation until it was formalised in 1919 it went under a number of names and its history is to say the least confusing.

Uniforms were issued but there doesn’t appear to have been a great deal of standardisation and certainly no badges have been identified as particular to that period. British officers probably wore the uniforms of their parent unit while local troops wore whatever could be obtained for them. Head-dress appears to have been either an Arab head cloth or Indian style turban without any badge. In the early stages of the unit’s existence the majority of local troops were Arab with some Kurds. However a considerable number of Assyrians began to enlist and by the time of the campaign against the Kurds in 1919 there was a full battalion of them.

In 1922 the unit’s adopted badge was a pair of crossed Iraqi daggers, hilts up and blades curving outwards with a crown surmounted by a lion between the hilts. Officers in service dress wore the usual British service dress cap with this badge.

With the formation of the Iraqi Kingdom in the 1920s the British agreed to stop the recruiting of Arabs who were needed for the new Iraqi Army and the Levies became more and more Assyrian in character.

Quite soon the crown and lion was dropped from the cap badge and a simple pair of crossed daggers was adopted. These were locally made, the officers from cast silver and the other ranks from a copper rich brass. The formal head dress was originally an astrachan fur busby but later a slouch hat turned up on the left was adopted in it’s place. The cap badge usually had a single stick pin fastening - presumably so it could be put on and off with minimal damage to the hat. Since they were handmade in the souk the badges exhibit considerable variation in size and the amount of decoration. Officers badges can vary from quite plain to elaborate niello inlay.

A smaller badge with lugs was worn on the airborne beret during WW2

The crossed daggers can also be found with a variety of letters and numbers attached. These are not fully understood.

Slouch hats were worn with a khaki pugree which had a coloured top fold and a correspondingly coloured feather plume
2nd Bn - Red
3rd Bn - White
4th Bn - Black
Depot - Yellow
MG - Blue

The photos show an officer's silver badge and a soldier's brass badge.