Collar Badges

[GRANVILLE]

Anyone what to explain why some get to wear these and others don't? Is there a recognised position on the collar where they were mean't to be worn.

Dave Upton

[squirrel]

IIRC only Officers should have worn collar badges but this does not mean that other ranks in certain units and regiments didn't wear them. I think that only other ranks in pioneer battalions and later the Labour Corps were authorised to wear collar badges but stand to be corrected.

[headgardener]

IIRC only Officers should have worn collar badges but this does not mean that other ranks in certain units and regiments didn't wear them. I think that only other ranks in pioneer battalions and later the Labour Corps were authorised to wear collar badges but stand to be corrected.

I can only comment on my observations of many thousands of photos of WW1 servicemen, but I don't think that it was a matter of collar badges being 'authorized' or not. Candian soldiers generally did wear them, though sometimes they didn't. Men in pioneer battalions generally did, though from my experience I have yet to see a photo of a Labour Corps man wearing collar badges. Some ASC men did (I contributed to a thread on the subject of ASC collar badges just a few days ago), but generally they didn't.

They would have been worn pre-war, but I always assumed that it was a matter of availability; there were more important things to produce once war broke out.

Those are my thoughts, for what they're worth.

[GRANVILLE]

From the above, would this mean that a pair of Notts & Derby collar badges would have been worn by officer ranks only, or does anyone have any photo evidence to confirm they may have been worn by OR's?

[Staffsyeoman]

I have been involved in so many bad-tempered discussions about the wear of collar badges by MGC O/Rs I'm wary to step in again (as some persons on the Forum seem unable to accept the phrase "as a general rule"...) but using that formula... except for Canadians with their maple leaves and Expeditionary Force battalion numbers, Australians with their Rising Sun, New Zealanders.... O/Rs in British units were not supposed to wear collar badges on their SD. The majority of photos with British units wearing collars are post-war. Yes, some units flaunted the rules but these were not the norm.

[wainfleet]

There is an exhaustive thread on this, if you care to search for it, either in this subforum or in Miscellaneous. As Staffsyeoman has pointed out, OR collar badges during the war were not the norm, but they are occasionally seen in period photos and on period uniforms. Their presence is usually, but not always, an indicator that a jacket is postwar.

[GRANVILLE]

Thanks for the, I've never been to sure on the situation and for me this seems perfectly clear, so lets now draw a line under it.

Dave

[Peter Doyle]

Now, about those MGC collar badges....

[squirrel]

As worn in a photograph of my uncle in uniform..........can't be post war as he was killed in May 1918.

[GRANVILLE]

D'HO!

[Staffsyeoman]

Now, about those MGC collar badges....

You know who you are...