KRRC cap badge

[o j kirby]

Hello,

Thanks to the forum, I have found that my Grandfather's half brother was in the KRRC. I want to add the correct badges to my collection. Can anyone advise me on avoiding a fake badge, and out of curiosity, how were the badges originally blackened, and did the soldiers have to re-blacken them when the badge got rubbed and the original brass colour came through?

Cheers

Owain.

[Aidan Martin]

Dear Owain

I am no expert (I collect ww1 medals not badges), but I think that they were orriginally blackened with boot polish so as to avaid the risk of them glinting at night and giving away a soldiers possition to snipers. The same was done with buttons and buckles on webbing etc...

 

They would have to re blacken them while in the trenches and polish them for parade etc... But I am no expert.

I will try and find you a link to a badge collectors forum I have seen somewhere

A Martin

o j kirby said:

Hello,

Thanks to the forum, I have found that my Grandfather's half brother was in the KRRC. I want to add the correct badges to my collection. Can anyone advise me on avoiding a fake badge, and out of curiosity, how were the badges originally blackened, and did the soldiers have to re-blacken them when the badge got rubbed and the original brass colour came through?

Cheers

Owain.

[Staffsyeoman]

Any real KRRC badge you find will have been blackened in production; if it is brass, the blacking has been removed (in error; no-one wore brass [coloured] KRRC badges in the field. They were issued black as is, not brass. The high points of detail would rub, but usually not sufficiently to provide a glinting hazard; boot polish would be only a temporary fix as it would rub off or leave residue on the cap. If sufficiently worn, a soldier would be instructed to buy a new one. Original blackened badges would stand up to quite some wear, and would be matt in appearance.

Reproductions are often 'blackened' by the application of enamel paint as used on model kits. Gloss paint is far too shiny for purpose - but has often been used.

It is very unlikely that KRRC buttons would be painted black as they were made from black horn or composite - and were inherently black, not needing any application of paint, polish or anything else.

[max7474]

They have been faked but not very well. They are common and cheap so I would buy one from any good dealer. They were always manufactured in painted black with a slightly 'shiny' but not full gloss paint.

[ralphjd]

My original badge cost me £20 a few years ago. Try Lew Shotton in Hampshire a good bloke, as is his son. Ralph.

[Old Tom]

Hello,

May I go a little off topic. I have my grandfathers 60th Rifles badge. He served from 1870 to 1883. Sometime since that the badge has been polished. I'm afraid I know little of the 60th, or its successors, and would like to pose 2 questions:

Is it feasible to restore the colur of the badge, and

What head dress did riflement wear in those days (I belive he was in the 2nd battalion and served in India and Afghanistan.

Old Tom

[7t2ndswinger]

Hello,

May I go a little off topic. I have my grandfathers 60th Rifles badge. He served from 1870 to 1883. Sometime since that the badge has been polished. I'm afraid I know little of the 60th, or its successors, and would like to pose 2 questions:

Is it feasible to restore the colur of the badge, and

What head dress did riflement wear in those days (I belive he was in the 2nd battalion and served in India and Afghanistan.

Old Tom

They would have worn something like these attached pictures. Please note that these are headress items for the Queen's Westminster Rifle Volunteers (who were a Volunteer Battalion of the KRRC) and the colours and badges would have been different.

If a badge has been completely stripped back to brass, I've found the most successfull method to resore it using blackening fluid such as Casey Gun Blue or Carrs blackening (the latter a model railway product). The badge will need acid cleaning to remove residues, blackening and then fixing to stop the blacking rubbing off. Carrs do the complete set.

Alternatively matt black paint or if you can find some old black lead paste by Zeebo before they turned it into a safe water based product are the best and easiest bet.

[MBrockway]

Hello,

May I go a little off topic. I have my grandfathers 60th Rifles badge. He served from 1870 to 1883.

What head dress did riflement wear in those days (I belive he was in the 2nd battalion and served in India and Afghanistan.

Old Tom

Tom,

For the period of his service, the KRRC dress headgear was as follows ...

up to 1873 - a low shako in rifle green with scarlet piping and with a rifle green ball

1873-1879 - a black rifles busby in sealskin (lambskin for officers), brass KRRC badge with a boss above it from which rose a black plume with a scarlet base

1879-1890 (I think) - spiked helmet (like the QWR example in 7t2ndswinger's post) in rifle green felt with brass spike and badge

1890 onwards - black rifles busby

I have a feeling pill-box caps were also worn but am rusty on the detail!

Service dress in India and Afghanistan was much simpler with the tropical helmet covered in khaki cloth and SD tunic in either dark green or more typically khaki.

The KRRC first went into khaki in 1878 during the Second Afghan War.

Here's a picture from the KRRC 250th Anniversary celebrations showing a Boer War khaki rig similar to that likely to have been worn by your relative in the sub-continent with a modern-day RGJ bandsman wearing a rifles busby alongside him. The man behind is wearing a recreation of the Indian Mutiny uniform. The man at the end of the file is wearing the original 1755 Royal Americans redcoat uniform.

HTH!

CHeers,

Mark

[Old Tom]

Hello,

Many thanks.

Old Tom