Black Officers POWs's feathers - Regiment?

[GriffMJ]

This Jennens & Co Officers cap badge "was" black ....... flecks of black paint can still be seen in parts of the badge. It looks like it had a matt black undercoat and then a glossy black paint finish over the top.

Does anyone know what Regiment this belonged to? ..... is it a Rifle regiments Officers cap badge?

[davec2]

Hi Griff,

If it is a J.& Co badge ( I personally don't know how it's identified ), I would strongly argue that the blades have been fitted well after it was originally produced, it looks like silver solder has been used and the burning to the metal shows up also.

I would also think that the blades are in the wrong place, possibly to hide the remains of lugs, I would have thought the scroll would have been used but if they are right, they are too long, what can I say, you have a strange beasty there, that's for sure.

I am of course, only guessing, I am wrong so often.............

Dave.

[GriffMJ]

Thanks for your opinion Dave...... any ideas on the Regiment?

[davec2]

You're asking me ?

I have trouble when the name is on the scroll ?? lol

Dave.

[Peter Brydon]

Officers on being commissioned or being posted to a station that required a new uniform would visit their outfitters to get kitted out and I am sure that the outfitters ( particularly in war time ) would often provide the nearest thing they had to the badge of the regiment that the officer had been commissioned into if the badge actually specified in dress regulations was not readily available

This may explain why some badges do not appear as collectors might expect and why some badges appear to have been modified. Serving officers and soldiers often wore whatever was available and did not have the obsession with insignia that todays collectors do.

Badge collecting ( in my opinion ) is an art and not a science.

P.B.

[davec2]

Hi Peter,

It would not enter my head to disagree with your opinion or argue with you, I appreciate the fact that you are vastly more experienced than myself but I will state that if the badge shown by Griff had been " modified " by a professional or an armourer, there wouldn't be the amount of silver solder overspill that is evident and it is more than likely that braze would have been used, in my opinion of course.

If it was done due to a shortage of that particular badge, I doubt that if it originally had lugs, the person doing the alteration would care about covering them, as we so often see on other modified versions and indeed probably wouldn't even bother changing it from a lugged badge in the first place.

What I'm alluding to and it is more likely to be the fact, is that anyone can get any badge and change it to suit whatever they want, oh, I forgot, some are already doing that, I could certainly do it but you can trust me that if I did change a badge in the fashion of the one Griff has shown, no-one on this Forum would be able to tell what I had done, that's for sure.....

Obviously all I say is based on my thoughts that it was lugged in the first place and so is pure conjecture, also, none of what I say is set in stone nor is it helping Griff to establish which regiment it may belong to.

Dave.

[Phil2M]

Could the badge have been painted black for wear by the Civil Service Rifles (originally it may have been Wiltshire Yeomanry?). I can't comment on the blades, other than they do look like very recent additions to me. CSR wore a blackened badge in WW1 didn't they?

Phil

[GriffMJ]

Its definatley an Officer pattern cap badge...

[Phil2M]

I have to admit to ignorance here What shows that this badge is an officer issue?

Could an officers badge have been adapted for wear by O/Rs?

Always happy to learn something.

Cheers

Phil