Parachute Regiment Collar Badges in 1944

[tcrown]

I was quite happy to obtain a nice pair of Firmin made bronze Para Collar badges recently (see below).
Pair Firmin PR Collar Badges Front.jpgPair Firmin PR Collar Badges Back.jpg

Realizing that not so much has been discussed about this on the forum, I went through a bit of digging and wanted to share the results.

An interesting thread on this topic https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...ghlight=collar concluded that Parachute Regt collar badges were not necessarily favoured during WW2 and it was common practice for officers to wear those of their original regiment on their Officers’ Service Dress (OSD).

In general, officers below the rank of Substantive Colonel wore collar badges on their OSD which were normally in bronze finished metal. As a form of wartime economy, officers of regiments raised during WW2 were not required to wear collar badges. This was particularly the case for the Parachute Regiment and the GPR. Although their badges designs were promulgated (in the spring of 1943 in the case of the PR), the badges themselves were not supposed to be available until after the war was over (source Brian L Davis).

We have numerous evidence of contemporary photos that show otherwise.
I wanted to know more and targeted photos of all officers in the 2nd and 3rd battalions in the summer of 1944.
Out of 65 officers, about half of them were wearing collar badges of their original regiment, a third adopted the Parachute Regiment Collar badges, both in bronze and white metal/silver finish and the rest, no collar badges at all. Not surprisingly, this last group was mainly amongst junior officers who probably wanted to avoid the expense of unnecessary badges.

What is quite remarkable is that most of the senior officers (7 out of 12 Majors and above) had adopted the Para collar badges, including Lt Col J. Frost himself. These photos are accessible from www.pegasusarchive.org.

Based on these photos, it seems that PR collar badges were rather well accepted by officers even if they were not required to be worn at this time of the war (mid 1944).

[JerryBB]

Good research

[Colin S]

Thorough research - thanks for sharing.

[Skippy]

Very interesting and great looking collar badges too!

Cheers……John

[tcrown]

Thank you guys. Glad this is of interest!

I would be curious to see other examples of PR collar badges.
As already mentioned, white metal badges were worn during WW2 but I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share photos of hallmarked silver examples.

[JerryBB]

I have these two w/m examples, both with brooch pins, one is marked Firmin London.

[tcrown]

Nice badges, Jerry. Thanks for sharing.

The one by Firmin is very close to the pair I presented but not identical.
They seem to have been converted to sweetheart broches. I didn't know this could be also the case with PR collar badges.

[tcrown]

Would anyone have photos of KC hallmarked silver Parachute Regiment collar badges to share?

[tcrown]

Here is a nice pair of silver plated collar badges made by Firmin, sold recently by Steve.
Pair of Silver Plated Collar Badges.jpg

[tcrown]

A nice unique silver badge made by Gaunt, sold recently on Ebay. The seller claimed it is hallmarked 1943 but the photo is a bit blurred. Very nice badge anyway.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295676743216
Hallmarked Silver Collar Badge made by Gaunt.jpg