First badge . . !

[Sonofacqms]

I would be very interested in what the first badge any forum members acquired and what the consequences were . . !

My first cap badge was one that I found in a drawer in my Grand parents house (actually it was a pub) was my Father's Royal Engineers cap badge (GviR), it had a stain to the 5 O'clock and I wore it to school in my jacket buttonhole.

Other pupils followed my idea and with little exchanges for sweets etc, I acquired others, the die was cast.

With hindsight I would love to have that first cap badge, I cannot remember who I exchanged I with, so if you have an RE GviR cap badge with a stain at 5 O'clock I would love to do an exchange or buy.

Regards Rob

[slick_mick]

I guess it would be this one. It was issued to me when I joined the regiment in 1988.

Mick

[Sonofacqms]

Mick.
That is a great looking badge, I have never seen that badge before being mainly interested in UK items, however, what a good starter with personal connections.

Rob

PS. I do have a few from down under . . !

[Home Guard]

Always a fun topic. I consider two possibilities. The first was not me really seeking badges, but from having a love and fascination with the RAF. My father, a career Air Force pilot brought me back from a TDY in the Azores an RAF wing (unpadded, and yes, I still have it), and I have treasured it ever since. Then because it was RAF, and now because he brought it to me. I was 16 at the time, so maybe the real first?

Then, a little over 30 years ago I was on my way to get a haircut and across from my barber shop was the city center, and I noticed a sign that said "Military Show". So doing the right thing I went on and got my hair cut!!! But afterwards I went straight to the show, paid my entrance fee, and thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I spent the entire afternoon till closing just walking around and looking. Then I saw a WWI German pilot's badge, and being interested still in aviation and more specifically WWI aviation I stopped to enquire about it. Ended up buying it for waaaaay too much because as I soon learned it was sooooo bogus. But the dealer took me and I learned a great lesson. And yes, I still have it. I think it is Luke H who often advises - buy the badge, not the story, i.e. that seller knew it was fake and told me it was a good one, so shame on me.

But, not sure which to consider the first, but the German Pilot badge started me collecting, while the RAF wing was just treasured.

Terry

[kingsley]

Rob, I suspect that your two open topped INF badges are Canadian rather that Auistralian.

[Sonofacqms]

Kingsley,
Many thanks, I put them on the board without thinking, put it down to whiskey drinking

Rob

[Phil2M]

My cousin gave me his anodised RE cap badge with some other bits and pieces. Mum decided they were all nasty and threw them all away, except the cap badge I had stored separately. As an eight year old I couldn't stop things getting binned whilst I was at school, it happened often and I still 31 years later hold a slight grudge.

[GTB]

I must have been 11 or 12 when our next-door neighbour gave me a black plastic KRRC cap badge, complete with red felt backing. My very first badge and I treasured it until in my ignorance and thinking I was doing the badge a favour, I removed the backing! I'll stop here.

[manchesters]

1966, a QVC Bays cap badge from my grandparents next door neighbour. Sorry to say I sold it many years later.

regards

[grey_green_acorn]

In the mid 1950s my uncle returned from Hong Kong having completed his National Service. He gave me his King’s Crown bimetal Royal Army Medical Corps cap badge which I still have together with thousands of other items acquired over the last 60 years!

Tim

[Volunteer Soldier]

North Staffords - When I arrived at the North Staffords depot, Whittington Barracks in 1958.

[tonyb]

An EiiR Royal Military Police in GM, given to me by a mate of my dad's, from that day on I was smitten!
Tony.

[Chacal]

This brooch, given to me by my late mother, is the survivor of a pair my uncle brought back for his sisters after serving as a Redcap in North Africa and Europe during WWII.

I've always been a collector in diverse areas, it would be some years after getting this brooch before I went down the rabbit hole - I've escaped a couple of times, but like the Mafia you get dragged back in .

[Phillip Herring]

On a trip to England in 1976, my great grandmother gave me this cap badge. It was given to her by her brother who served all through the First World War with the Cambridgeshire Regiment. He was awarded the MSM - I have his medals along with the replacements which were ordered when it was thought that the originals had been lost. After getting this badge, all hope was lost. I was hooked.

[Charliedog012012]

It has to be the Cap badge of my now deceased father who served with the RAF in the Middle East during WW2. Holds a special pride of place in the collection and brings the memories of him flooding back.