Unknown Badge

[J Banning]

A friend has asked me about this badge – not sure why as this is about as far from my area of interest as possible.

However, I thought that the GWF may have the answer. Does anyone know what this is?

Cheers

Jeremy

[paulgranger]

It's certainly Pioneer Corps insignia, but I don't know in what contect

[Tyneside Chinaman]

Hi

They are Infantry Pioneer Battalion collar badges worn by battalions of Infantry of the Line pioneer battalions and 4/Coldstream Guards.

Battalions that wore these collars include 9/Border, 22/DLI, 17 18 and 19/Nthbd Fus, 1/7/DLI, etc.

See Pioneer Battalions of the Great War by KW Mitchinson, which lists all of them and what they did.

Most regiments had at least one Pioneer Battalion.

regards

John

[J Banning]

Thanks gents, I thought they were something to denote pioneers but thought I wouldn’t say so until I had it confirmed. Many thanks for the swift response.

[MBrockway]

.... as this is about as far from my area of interest as possible.

Cheers

Jeremy

Jeremy,

If your main interest is in the Tunnelling Companies, that in fact is not that far away from the work of the infantry Pioneer battalions, which had a lot of overlap with the RE.

You're likely to find Bill Mitchinson's book (see John's post) very interesting, and a search on Pioneers here on the Forum would definitely be worth your while.

Cheers,

Mark