North Riding RV Badge

[davidwyke]

Can anyone ID this badge please?

It's brass, aprox 40mm, die stamped with 2 copper lugs (E/W). On the back of the scroll there is a tablet with the maker - JR Gaunt, London.

"RV" may well = Rifle Volunteers but I would have expected the badge to be white metal rather than brass. Also, it would date from the early 1880's at the latest but the maker suggests a later date - I've got WW1 era badges with a similar "tablet" on the back.

Any info much appreciated.

[yorkie]

Your badge is indeed a North Riding Rifle Volunteers Capbadge,
It certainly looks a good one to me,I would be very happy to include that one in my collection well done mate.

[JimD]

David

I dont know when the Gaunt Plates came into being, but one thing to remember with the Rifle Volunteers from 1859 to maybe 1881, they were to be at no cost to the government, so that in effect meant that the badges, uniforms etc were at local expense, even sponsored by local businesses and therefore local control.

That means you get a wide variety of badge design with no Central control, some units didnt even use a cap badge!

Should stop now, I had a few......

[Keith Blakeman]

I'm pretty certain it's a WW1 VTC badge.

[davidwyke]

Hi chaps

Many thanks for the responses.

At first I assumed it must be a North Riding Rifle Volunteers badge from the early 1880's. I take the point about RV badges being in various metals, etc. After I put the post on it occured to me that it could have originally been blackened brass which was frequently used by RV's.

Having said all that, I'm inclined to go with the WW1 Volunteer Training Corps theory.

The various North Riding RV Corps were consolidated into the 1st & 2nd Corps in 1880 and became the 1st & 2nd Vol Bn's of the Yorkshire Regt in 1883. So, the badge would have to be a Glengarry badge. The badge of the 1st Corps is shown KK 1554. It could be the Glengarry badge of the 2nd Corps but it looks more like a cap badge to me.

As far as I can ascertain, Gaunts didn't begin producing badges as a seperate company until the mid 1880's at the earliest which would post date the above period. I don't know when they started putting "tablets" on badges but none of those I have date much before WW1.

So, I think the WW1 VTC idea is probably correct. They had a huge variety of cap badges, the West Riding Volunteers badge (KK 1688) is quite similar. The "RV" designation still bothers me, not all the badges had "VTC", a few had "Volunteer Rfles" but I'm not aware of any with "Rifle Volunteers" or any units in the North Riding but they almost certainly existed.

Oh well, it's a nice little badge whatever it is.

[oc14]

It is WW1 VTC without question.
PL

[yorkie]

Just thought you might like to see a Shoulder title to go with your Cap badge.

[davidwyke]

Nice title Yorkie!

[Lincolnsreg]

I came across one of these some years ago. From what I remember it was cast rather than stamped, which is what drew it to my attention. This came from a reputable friend's metal detecting collection and is identical in form. Although I figured the north riding rifle vols it's nice to have a proper id here.