1914- 1918 British Cap Badges

[Paul1303]

Hi, I'm new to this - as you will see from my questions )
I've bought a number of books including kiplings hat badge book vol 1 - I'd like to focus on Hat Badges purely associated with the first war -t in some instnaces there seem to be a numer of different badges for the same regiment - could anyone offer me some sound advice? also any words of wisdom from those of you that have been at this for a while would be appreciated...

regards
Paul...

[MH331]

Paul,

welcome. If you have invested in good reference works you are halfway there. If you don't have a copy I suggest this book as a good starter

http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Badg.../dp/0747807973

I would also recommnd a look through the Album tab lots of good stuff in peoples collections.

Good hunting

Mark

[2747andy]

Paul,
The book Mark has posted a link to is an excellent guide, however a lot of the images it contains are of reproduction badges, in particular the Yeomanry items and some of the info on Economy badges is inaccurate!

I still think for all it's faults, Gaylor is probably the best book available for the beginner

Andy

[Sonofacqms]

Paul,

I think if you have invested in Kipling & King Volume 1 and you are interested in British cap badges of the Great war era then look no further.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a number of different badges for the same regiment" as K&K show in chapter 12 the Line Infantry cap badges from 1898 to 1921 with the Victorian badges clearly marked, the same with the Cavalry and Yeomanry. The Corps badges will all have a King's crown where applicable and chapter 22 deals with units raised during the Great War.

I hope this helps, but ask away on this forum, there's lots of knowledge here.

Rob

[KLR]

Paul, that sounds like an awful lot of badges. When I was a boy I collected cap badges for all the infantry regiments of the British army. Here's the result
(I never got round to collecting cavalry, services etc but concentrated on one regiment)
Enjoy
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/album.php?albumid=2376&pictureid=105415http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/forums/album.php?albumid=2376&pictureid=105415

[ubervamp]

Hi Paul - welcome to the Forum!

When I started collecting, my mission statement was the same as yours; collecting badges to the Great War. I've completed Line Infantry, Arms and Services, Territorial Regiments.

Lot's of good advice already given here, so I'll just my own experiences;

Doyle's guide, linked to above, is a great beginners guide. But as mentioned, has some shortcomings with regards to information on economy badges, and shows a couple of badges now generally accepted as fakes/fantasy badges.
Gaylor's is an excellent companion, and since you have K&K, you're pretty much set with these

With regards to different badges to the same regiment; Territorial battalions, and war raised service battalions (like Pal's) sometimes have they're own badge for their given battalion/s. Doyle shows this quite clearly.

One thing you're bound to come across is the number of copies/fakes/repro's out there.
It's very easy to get caught out. My advice would be to buy from serious dealers and forum members. SMM is a good place to visit, and is run by a member. The badges there are checked and fakes weeded out.

Some badges are very common and you can pick them up quite reasonably. Others are more expensive and rare. Line Regiments are perhaps the easiest to come by. KLR's link above is a great starting point.

What I did, and do, is if I'm after a certain badge, I'll do a search here on the forum. This will bring up a few hits and usually illustrations. If in doubt, post a pic if possible on the Forum and ask opinions!
Loads of helpful members here
The reason I stress the need to make sure it's a genuine badge, is that it's so easy for beginners to get caught out, and there's nothing that kills the pleasure of collecting as realising you've been burnt.

My other advice is that this is a vast field (WW1) with hundreds of badges. In the end, I decided to focus on one area at a time (Line Reg's, Arms, etc) and that might be a good idea?

If in doubt, post to the forum with any query!

Good luck

Colin

[Hussar100]

Welcome Paul. You'll get plenty of help on this forum, as well as enjoyable company.