Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment (TA) Forage Cap.

[leigh kitchen]

An Other Ranks cap of the 3rd and 4th Territorial Army Battalions of The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment.

The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) and The East Surrey Regiment amalgated to form The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment in 1959.

The regular 1st Battalion wore the cap badge and buttons of The Home Counties Brigade, the Territorial Army battalions continued to be named as battalions of The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) and The East Surrey Regiment, wearing the insignia of those regiments until they were reformed as the 3rd and 4th Battalions of the new regiment in 1961.

The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment was amalgamated into The Queen's Regiment in 1966, the 3rd and 4th Battalions being disbanded in 1967.

(If I've got any of the above detail wrong please correct me).

The cap bears anodised aluminium badge and buttons of the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment (the buttons are similar but different to those of the post 1966 Queens Regiment), the peak is of leather but with plastic trim, the chinstrap is of plastic with blackened metal fittings (I don't know if they're brass or steel) I don't know if this would be correct for a cap of the period.
The manufacturer is J Compton Sons and Webb, the date of manufacture stamped on the leather sweatband is 1964.
I think the cap is fitted with a brass spring clip retainer for the badge slider as I couldn't easily remove the badge to check it for manufacturer's markings, I don't want to risk damaging it.