Unusal 5th Gurkha Rifles Badge

[gurkharifles]

I was delighted to recently acquire this badge off Ashok Nath. Ashok acquired two of them from the Regimental tailors many years ago when he bought up their stock of old British insignia. It's really unusual in that the crest is in brass and the rest of the badge in white metal. I believe it's an adaption of a badge that is illustrated in the Gurkha museum's book on the insignia of the regiment. That one is all white metal and a crown (without a Lion) . The 5th Gurkhas were awarded the title "Royal" in 1921 and the crown was added to the design of the badge - but in 1927 the Regiment decided that the crown by itself was not distinctive enough and received permission to add the Lion. So either the badge was just adapted to reflect the new change in design or quite possibly this was a prototype made by the Regimental tailors/silversmiths to show what the badge would look like with Lion (using an existing crest from some other corps or regiment)- so it may never have been worn but I'm very happy that I've acquired an interesting piece of the Regiment's insignia/history
Tim