Book Description

Badges of the Regular Infantry, 1914-1918 is based on over thirty years research in museums, archives and collections. It is an exhaustive study of the development of the battalion, brigade and divisional signs of the twelve divisions that formed the regular army during the Great War. It also looks at the badges of those battalions left behind to guard the Empire. While the divisional signs are well known, there has been no authoritative work on the signs worn by the infantry battalions. The book will illustrate the cap and shoulder titles used, as well as cloth signs worn to provide easy recognition in the trenches. Each regular and reserve battalion of a regiment has a listing, which provides a brief history of the unit and detailed information on the badges worn. It is prodigiously illustrated and contains much information, like why a shape or color was chosen, when it was adopted, what size it was, whether it was worn on a helmet, what color the helmet was and even what colors were used on horse transport; the majority of this rich and detailed information has never been published before. What helps make the information accurate and authoritative is that much of it comes from an archive created at the time and from personal correspondence with hundreds of veterans in the 1980s, many of whom still had their badges and often had razor-sharp recollections about wearing them. The book also provides some comments from these veterans. Using the illustrations will allow many of those unidentified photos in family albums to come to life.