British Army Glengarry Badges.

[Watchdog]

As I mentioned previously on the subject of Fusilier Grenade badges, contrary to what many believe. The Glengarry Cap was worn by most British regiments from 1874 to 1895 not just Scottish regiments.

Until 1881 the main feature in unit badges was the regimental number in the order of precedence With the reforms of 1881 it was more like the symbology we recognise today after regiments adopted territorial titles rather than just the numbers.

During both periods the Glengarry badge was created by using the same centre from the helmet plate together with a seperately issued crown the two being fastened together with a brass plate and split pins on the inside of the cap.

The numbered badges are quite scarce whilst the titled types are less so but all are rather striking when seen on the cap. So I would like to start a thread with the intention of putting in one place as many Glengarry badges as possible (repetition is good for comparison too) from either period plus comments and discussion.

Let's see what members have.

Regards

Mark

[Watchdog]

Formed in 1881 (during the reviews of that year) from;
The 4oth Regiment of Foot (2nd Somersetshire Regiment) originally raised in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia ad The 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) raised in Britain in 1793.
It eventually became part of The Queens Lancashire Regiment via the short lived Lancastrian Brigade and today is incorporated in the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

[Watchdog]

Formed in 1881 from the 63rd and 96th Regiments of foot it eventually became part of the Kings Regiment (Liverpool and Manchester) and is another component of the current Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

[Watchdog]

This is just to illustrate my point about the hemet plate centre (HPC) which was used to create the Glengarry badge and relates to Other Ranks (enlisted men) badges. Officers badges are a seperate subject);

With the creation of territorial titles in place of the older numbering system in 1881 a generic helmet plate was introduced which bore the Queens Victorian Crown (QVC) and could be fitted with any of the regimental HPC. The HPC were backed with black cloth except for regiments with the distinction "Royal" who used red, Alexandra Princess of Wales's (Yorkshire Regiment) who used green and The South Staffordshire Regiment who used brown "Holland cloth" (Hessian).

In 1902 the Helmet plate continued in the same format but with the Kings Crown (KC) and this was repeated in 1953 when the crown was changed to a Queens Crown (QC) by which time the Glengarry had been deleted in most regiments (by 1895 actually) and helmet wear was confined to full ceremonial dress.

It is quite common for collectors to display a numer of HPC with single example of the generic plate.



Regards

Mark