Fashion Hats

The fascination with the British involvement in the First World War extends to all aspects of the conflict. The battles and their outcomes; the armies and their leaders; the conditions of trench warfare; and the controversies form part of the growing literature examining every aspect of a war that was to cast a shadow over the rest of the twentieth century, the effects of which are still being felt today. For the British army, the cap badge is the most easily identifiable form of insignia. It represents a distillation of the pride of the regiment, its various battle honors and symbols borne proudly on the metallic emblem that was worn on all headdress, even within the trenches. Identification of the cap badge on old photographs is a first, important step in unraveling the military service of an individual. Cap badges have been collected avidly since they were first thought of in the nineteenth century. Cap-badge collecting is as popular...

Pride of Reading nomination for 7 Rifles

Whether serving on the frontline in Afghanistan and Iraq, training hard across the world, or doing Reading proud for Armed Forces Day, 7 Rifles has been a big part of the town for years.

What makes it even more special is it is made up of men and women who also have jobs on Civvy Street as it is a Territorial Army (TA) regiment with many soldiers who also juggle a day job and rely on employees to be supportive.

With greater pressure on resources in the British Army, the role of the TA has become increasingly important as regiments like 7 Rifles have bolstered and supported Regular colleagues in deployments around the world, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And now, as members prepare to deploy to Afghanistan again this autumn, their efforts have been recognised with a nomination for a Pride of Reading Award in the Armed Forces category, sponsored by Gravity Personnel.

The nomination was made anonymously but the submission said: “Throughout its history 7 Rifles in all its incarnations has been a gentle giant based in Reading, some almost forgetting one of the community’s beating hearts existed right here.

Source: Reading Post

British Army Cap Badges of the Twentieth Century (Crowood Collectors')

by admin

Items connected with the British military have always been extremely popular with collectors, and the intricate and beautiful badges made to denote a soldier's regiment have always been keenly collected, due to their small size, high quality and the fascinating stories of military derring-do that lie behind each one. The British army cap badge really came into being around the turn of the twentieth century, with large badges intended for the blue cloth helmets then in use.  Later badges became smaller, and materials changed, as headgear became smaller, and new manufacturing techniques took away the laborious daily cleaning that was a part of every soldier's routine for most of the century. With every regiment having numerous variations of badge, this is a field of collecting that will yield rewards for the collector....

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Investigations of a Dog » Acquisitions and the return of the blogroll

by Gavin Robinson

The blogroll is back again and Google Reader shared items have gone because Google is about to destroy the sharing features in Reader. This is apparently an attempt to force us to switch to Google Plus but in my case it just means that I’ll switch to Liferea, which is a perfectly adequate RSS reader from the Ubuntu repository. I’ll miss the sharing but I’ll also have more time to do constructive things, and I’ll be slightly less dependent on Google services, so it’s not all bad.

Dealing with this has taken up the time I was going to use to write a proper post, so here are some acquisitions instead. Remember there’s still another week to take advantage of the Ashgate sale .