Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Great War cap badge

['Ticker' Riley]

In my attempts to get hold of a genuine First World War D.C.L.I. ordinary ranks’ cap badge I recently bought one with the infamous J.R.GAUNT.LONDON mark associated with 1970s restrikes, which I subsequently returned to the seller after the overwhelming weight of opinion here was that it was indeed a restrike. Since then I have now managed to get hold of this example by Lambourne’s of Birmingham:

The badge has been through the wars a little (if you’ll excuse the military pun!), and whilst the dealer who sold me the badge didn’t say it dated from the Great War, it was one of the oldest badges he had. Interestingly I have seen previous postings elsewhere on the Forum about Lambourne cap badges, and in particular there is one by Sonofacqms in which he said:

Originally Posted by Sonofacqms

Several years ago I got interested in badges made by Lambourne, the company I believe only made badges during WW1 and the quality of their strikes varied between reasonable and awful, they were not plentiful and I only managed to acquire: Lancs Fusiliers, Norfolk Regt, A.S.C., Northamptonshire Regt, KRR, and the Cambridgeshire Regt. All these badges were die-struck to a degree of quality.

As I’m still so new to this game I’m very much on the learning curve with things, so any advice or comments regarding this badge would be very much appreciated. At the moment I think this one is an authentic Lambourne badge, and it does look very much like one that was formerly posted up by Jibba Jabba; thought the slider on his was shorter and squared off. Anyway here’s a close up of the slder on the one I’ve bought:

If Sonofacqms is right about Lambourne only making badges during the First War, then I think there’s a good chance I have one from the period I’m looking for. Though having said that, I have also been led to believe that ordinary ranks’ badges never carried a maker’s mark - all comments welcome!

Regards

Martin

[Sonofacqms]

Martin, your DCLI by Lambourne looks to me to be a good one, there is a slight change in the shape of the bugle from other DCLI badges. There is no sustitute for holding a badge in your hand, screen images, although good cannot convey the feel of a badge.

[Chrisr]

Martin,
I also have a Lambourne DCLI badge. The quality looks quite good o me.

[NorthStafford]

Ticker, just a small point OR means other ranks not ordinary.

[Jibba Jabba]

I`m not sure about these. As I said on an earlier thread my badge has a rectangular slider with a well defined crimp line. I also believe the metal of the badge to be a lot thicker than the example shown.

I`m afraid I simply do not know enough about this manfacturer in regards to when they introduced rectangular sliders and standard shaped sliders. Someone on the forum did say that the quality does differ a lot with this manufacturer, perhaps that person could enlighten the forum?

[Chrisr]

I'm quite happy with mine. Good crisp stamping and solid. Feels right.

Cheers
Chris

['Ticker' Riley]

Many thanks for all the comments gentlemen.

Your Lambourne D.C.L.I. badge certainly looks to be the same as the one I have Chris, though mine seems to have suffered a bit and is now more curved in shape, with the middle of the horn slightly buckled and the slider rather bent towards its end. Mine is also quite grubby on the back compared with yours, and your slider appears to be fixed higher up on the crown – all very interesting.

I have to say that the metal on mine isn’t that thick, so maybe the one you have Jibba Jabba is a better quality strike? Perhaps the difference in the slider shape is also of some significance, but I too don’t know enough about the subject to say. To be honest I think at this stage I’m inclined to agree with Chris and Sonofacqms in as much as the one I bought does look (and feel) to be authentic.

If anyone else has other examples of Lambourne badges it would be good to see them, and any other thoughts on things so far would also be most welcome.

Regards

Martin

P.S. Thank you NorthStafford for correcting my mistake about wrongly referring to “other ranks” as “ordinary ranks” - hope the members of the Forum will forgive my ignorance in this respect!?