world War 1 Economy issue Cap Badges

[brian sinclair]

My name is Brian Sinclair and I am a new member of the B & C badge forum.
I live in Durban South Africa and am a collector of British Military Cap Badges of the regular army and the royal Marines.
I am at present trying to collect the brass economy badges of W.W.1 from books that I have I know that I am still to acquire the badges of the Black Watch and the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. Can anybody help me with the following 2 W.W.1 economy badges as I am not sure of their existence?
1. Border regiment – John Gaylor in his book Military Badge collecting shows this badge to exist. Doyle & Foster in their book British Army Cap Badges of the First World War make no mention of a brass economy badge. A Ward’s book Cap Badges of the 20th Century show on page 73 the Border Regiment Badge that could be brass.
2. The Kings Own Scottish Borderers, neither of the above books make any mention of a W.W.1 brass economy issue, but W & K Bloomer in their book Scottish Regimental Badges 1793-1971 show badge number 87 as the KOSB W.W.1 brass economy issue.
Hoping for clarification on my questions

Regards
Brian Sinclair

[Mike]

Welcome to the forum!

Brian you need to be careful - even some of the most recent books have the nature and existence of some economy badges just plain wrong.

I would strongly recommend that you search on here for 'Economy' and read the threads starting with the oldest and come forward from there.

good luck!

[John Mulcahy]

Welcome to you Brian

for the most part the books published to date are in accurate when it comes to the subject of WW1 cap badges produced in all gilding metal (GM) for the sake of speeding up production and freeing up skilled labour.

this album by forum member KLR shows those infantry cap badges officially authorized in GM

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ictureid=58507

As Mike mentions there are several excellent threads on the subject many with primary references to support the opinions and observations.

Once you get past cap badges there are shoulder titles involved in this measure also.

John

[2747andy]

Brian,
You may find this album of use too?

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...hp?albumid=400

Looks to me as though you may already have the 26 Infantry?

This thread may be of interest too;

http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...t=bank+holiday


Andy

[brian sinclair]

thank you fof responding to my question regarding ww1 brass cap badges i appreciate it i have a lot to learn about badge collecting

Regards
brian sinclair

[Alan O]

Originally Posted by brian sinclair

I know that I am still to acquire the badges of the Black Watch and the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. Can anybody help me with the following 2 W.W.1 economy badges as I am not sure of their existence?
1. Border regiment – John Gaylor in his book Military Badge collecting shows this badge to exist. Doyle & Foster in their book British Army Cap Badges of the First World War make no mention of a brass economy badge. A Ward’s book Cap Badges of the 20th Century show on page 73 the Border Regiment Badge that could be brass.
2. The Kings Own Scottish Borderers, neither of the above books make any mention of a W.W.1 brass economy issue, but W & K Bloomer in their book Scottish Regimental Badges 1793-1971 show badge number 87 as the KOSB W.W.1 brass economy issue.

Brian,

Whilst all brass BW badges exist it is now thought that these are either badges made for Canadian BW regts or fakes.

KOSB badges were not a 1916 economy measure what ever Bloomer states.

KSLI did not have an all brass version but fakes do exist.

Border Regt brass badges do exist but I do not believe that they were an ecnomy issue. It is possible that they are former nickel plated badges that have had their white metal coating stripped.

In short any brass badge you find for these regts are either mis-attributed as 1916 economy badges, cast theatre-made badges, officers collars or fakes. The list published in Gaylor's book is worthless as it was based on collections in existance in the days before Official records were opened and at a time when badges were indentified by sending brass rubbbings by post! Even Gaylor's Annex is non-commital in the way it describes the list's accuracy.

The other fact that is now clear with the release of official records is that the econmy badges were all fitted with sliders except for the Royal Scots badge.