Connaught Rangers cap badge

[Bevo39]

Gents, I recently found out my great grandad was in the Conaught Rangers in WW1. I am now trying to assemble some bits and pieces from the regiment as a keep sake.

I have already been stung on a Connaught cap badge was post war. Could anyone please give me some info on how to spot a real Connaught rangers app badge and how to spot. Fake one.

Thanks very much in advance

Bevo 39

[renmore]

Hi Bevo, I have attached a front and back view of a genuine CR badge, please note void under the crown on front and voids between the harp strings,also note wire strengthener on rear of badge as the crown was liable to break off.

[BobS]

Gents, I recently found out my great grandad was in the Conaught Rangers in WW1. I am now trying to assemble some bits and pieces from the regiment as a keep sake.

I have already been stung on a Connaught cap badge was post war. Could anyone please give me some info on how to spot a real Connaught rangers app badge and how to spot. Fake one.

Thanks very much in advance

Bevo 39

I don't believe that " post war" would be an apt description of a cap badge, given that the regiment was disbanded in 1922, along with the other Southern Irish regiments, only four years after WWI.
I am not aware of any change in the Connaught's cap badge between 1918 & 1922.

BobS

[Bevo39]

Yes you are quite right, bad terminology, the badge is actually a re strike. On a side note,I have found his medal role which states he serve in The Balkans during the WW1. The medal role states he was issued with three medals. I have been sent a picture of the medals (three standard WW1 service medals) and a picture of the his original cap badge (long lost), the cap badge almost looks silver. Anyone any ideas about if there could have been a silver cap badge and why? If anyone has any further details about what units he may have been in to serve in the Balkans i would be very interested. Thanks for the photos renmore, I will use them for reference.

[renmore]

If he was in the Balkans,the only CR battalion to serve there was the 5th CR who first served at Gallipoli(landed at anzac cove 5/8/1915)then Salonika, Egypt,Palestine and back to France in July 1918.As to the silver badge, this was worn by officers but was discontinued by WW1 where officers wore Bronze badges and other ranks wore brass coloured badges,sometimes badges can look silver in photos.BTW was your Great GG a Yorkshire man?

[Bevo39]

That is extremely useful info, thank you very much. I am going to visit Kew in the next few weeks to have a look at the archives so will use that as a starting point. Not a Yorkshireman, he was from London and has no Irish connections that we know of. It is therefore a mystery why he enlisted in the CR's.

[renmore]

Sometimes men went where they were sent,by the end of Sept 1915 the 5th CR had suffered over 600 casualties, there were not enough recruits at bases in Ireland so men were drafted in from other regions of the UK to replace losses in Irish regiments.If you want to post or PM his name and details I will have a look at Ancestry(Medlal index card,maybe service record)and some unit histories to see if he is mentioned(but that would be unusual).