Battalion Insignia

[RussT]

Apolgies in advance if this is an easy question.

Did a soldier have an identifiable marking to distinguish his Bn from another in the same Regiment?

If so, what form did it generally take?

Thanks for your help

Russ

[FROGSMILE]

Apolgies in advance if this is an easy question.

Did a soldier have an identifiable marking to distinguish his Bn from another in the same Regiment?

If so, what form did it generally take?

Thanks for your help

Russ

Russ, before 1908 you could identify a Regular soldier's Regiment and Battalion from red and white worsted cloth shoulder titles in 2 parts. The upper part gave the Regiments name in white block lettering on a red background, and a white number on a red patch beneath gave the Battalion number, usually 1, or 2, but for a few larger regiments 1 to 4. These titles were stitched on the upper arm just below the shoulder.

From 1908 the titles changed to brass letters worn on the shoulder straps and no number was worn by Regulars, so you could not tell which battalion. Territorial Battalions, however, had a brass 'T' above the regimental title and a number above that, so you could establish at a glance what Territorial Battalion a man was in providing he was wearing his badges. The war raised Service battalions of the Regular Army adopted the same policy as their pre-war counterparts and no number was worn, although some did wear unique cap badges and/or shoulder titles to identify themselves as different, e.g. the Tyneside Scottish and Tyneside Irish Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers.

As war went on the wearing of brass titles that hooked on camouflage netting, hessian and webbing equipment became increasingly impractical and some Battalions started to re-adopt worsted cloth titles as for pre-war, (but without any numbers for the Regulars).

From 1917 on a further scheme of cloth patches were introduced on the upper half of the arm and back centre of the shoulders as 'Tactical Recognition' and these generally showed a mans Division, Brigade and the sequencing of his Battalion within the latter.

[Graham Stewart]

From 1908 the titles changed to brass letters worn on the shoulder straps and no number was worn by Regulars, so you could not tell which battalion. Territorial Battalions, however, had a brass 'T' above the regimental title and a number above that, so you could establish at a glance what Territorial Battalion a man was in providing he was wearing his badges. The war raised Service battalions of the Regular Army adopted the same policy as their pre-war counterparts and no number was worn, although some did wear unique cap badges and/or shoulder titles to identify themselves as different, e.g. the Tyneside Scottish and Tyneside Irish Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers.

The exception being those O/R's serving with the Militia/Special Reserve, who were identified from their Regular counterparts with the addition of the brass numerals '3' or '4', which were also worn with the white worsted embroided county tiles on the shoulder strap of the scarlet jacket and on the SD jacket. Officers of the Militia wore just a plain letter 'M' with their rank on the shoulder of their scarlet jackets, but a smaller 'M' on their collars, below the collar badge of their early pattern SD jackets.

The same applied to Officers of the Volunteer Force/Territorials, where the letters 'V'(pre-1908) & 'T'(post 1908) were worn. In July 1916 the letter 'V' was introduced again for both officers and other ranks of the newly created "Volunteer Force".

[FROGSMILE]

The exception being those O/R's serving with the Militia/Special Reserve, who were identified from their Regular counterparts with the addition of the brass numerals '3' or '4', which were also worn with the white worsted embroided county tiles on the shoulder strap of the scarlet jacket and on the SD jacket. Officers of the Militia wore just a plain letter 'M' with their rank on the shoulder of their scarlet jackets, but a smaller 'M' on their collars, below the collar badge of their early pattern SD jackets.

The same applied to Officers of the Volunteer Force/Territorials, where the letters 'V'(pre-1908) & 'T'(post 1908) were worn. In July 1916 the letter 'V' was introduced again for both officers and other ranks of the newly created "Volunteer Force".

Spot on as always Graham, I had completely forgotten about the Militia's 'M', thank you for completing the jigsaw.

To clarify for readers, those few Regiments that had 4 Regular Battalions (e.g. KRR) had their Militia Battalions numbered as 5th and 6th in comparison with the more usual (for other Regiments) 3rd and 4th,

[RussT]

Many thanks for your comprehensive respones.

Regards

Russ