Odd Small Arms School Cap badge

[sapper533]

Hi folks

A typical heavy cast cap badge from India or Pakistan, as usual might be old or might have been made yesterday.
However what's unusual is that it is not a typical SASC pattern/copy
Any ideas?
Regards
Sean

[sapper533]

Answering my own question....is it purporting to be prior to amalgamation with the Machine Gun School?

[Sonofacqms]

I'm not sure what type of rifles are represented on this badge, they certainly do not look much like SMLE's or any other Lee Enfield that was in service 1902-1953.

Perhaps other firearms enthusiasts will have an idea of what they are?

Rob

[manchesters]

They have the appearance of flintlock muskets.

regards

[mike_vee]

Originally Posted by sapper533

Answering my own question....is it purporting to be prior to amalgamation with the Machine Gun School?

Could it be an "updated" version of a "School of Musketry" prize badge

Possibly from 1919-1926 ? (see photo 2)

.

[sapper533]

Hi Mike
I was looking at this image last night thinking it had similarities,

[Toby Purcell]

A typical sand cast badge. I think it’s probably for the Small Arms School at Saugor, in India. There were similar Small Arms Schools across the Empire, principally in the Dominions (India had two or three at different times, including Pachmarhi and another offshoot was at Ahmendnagar). They were run on lines and syllabi laid down by the parent school at Hythe, with a mixture (in India) of British and indigenous instructors. After independence the school moved to Mhow.

[sapper533]

That's great Toby, many thanks.
Regards
Sean

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by sapper533

That's great Toby, many thanks.
Regards
Sean

I’m glad to help and fairly sure of it. They are extraordinarily rare because they weren’t worn by the British officers, but by the Indian NCOs on the permanent staff, usually on the front of their pagris. Very few are likely to have survived.

[sapper533]

As coincidence would have it, I spotted this card on ebay so bought just because it had the badge on the front,
What I didn't expect is that the seller had researched the sender of the card and sent their findings.
Lt John W Lugard (Kings Own)
Seconded Small Arms School 1927
Pachmarhi Wing Central Provinces.

So you were spot on Toby

Cheers
Sean

[Tinto]

Great stuff, Sean. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, John

[CAM]

Great find.

Chris

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by sapper533

As coincidence would have it, I spotted this card on ebay so bought just because it had the badge on the front,
What I didn't expect is that the seller had researched the sender of the card and sent their findings.
Lt John W Lugard (Kings Own)
Seconded Small Arms School 1927
Pachmarhi Wing Central Provinces.

So you were spot on Toby

Cheers
Sean

Thank you for posting it Sean - very interesting to me. Also the green and yellow ribbon colours of the SofM. The colours of the Netheravon Machine Gun School in the U.K. were red, green and blue (from the old MGC) and when the Small Arms School Corps was formed by merging the two schools in 1926 the two sets of colours were all combined and eventually appeared in the new corps ribbon and later in a stable belt and necktie. From a cap badge perspective it’s especially significant that if you superimpose a Vickers MG in profile over the crest (also your badge) on your card it creates the cap badge adopted by the SASC, three years later, in 1929.

P.S. There was another such school at Changla Gali during WW1. The original school of musketry during the HEIC era was at Dum-Dum, and where Indian and European NCOs were sent to learn the new, greased Enfield cartridge loading drill that in part led to the Indian Mutiny of 1857 (aka the ‘First War of Indian Independence’).

NB. Notice the similarities with the Canadian School of Musketry badge and the various inspirations for a Vickers gun in profile.