Badges of the London Irish Rifles

An interesting display of badges to the London Irish Rifles, they are,starting from the top left;

Pipers shoulder belt plates;

Queen Victoria Crown, note the scroll which reads 'South Africa 1900-1902'. This is a late Victorian badge, the scroll being added presumably 'late on' as i have scans of this badge without the scroll: It is die-struck silver plate.Black velvet backing.

Kings crown, again with the scroll, reads the same as the QVC above. It is die-struck silver plate. It too has a black velvet backing.

Kings Crown, die-struck silver plate with a silvered backing plate, it has screw posts to the rear. Another version has lugs fitted for caubeen wear and a hackle tube fitted to the rear of the backing plate.

Queens crown, die-struck silver plate with silvered backing plate,scroll reads ' South Africa 1900-1902'. This badge has 3 screw post fittings but it also comes with 2 lugs fitted (east and West) for wear in the caubeen, this variety has the addition of a flattened oval tube on the rear of the backing plate so that a hackle can be worn. The hackle being a 'St Patricks blue' which is almost turquoise,

I hope to be able to add scans of these badges, front and rear, to this page at some stage when time and space permit.

Buttons (on the left)

Three sizes of the the QVC button (large,medium and cap size),all are brass and they consist of a garter surround that reads 'London Irish Rifles Volunteers' , to the centre is a QVC crowned harp.

Buttons (on the right)

Three sizes of the Kings Crown button (large,medium and cap size), in black horn and they consist of a scalloped edge,crowned KC harp with a scroll below that reads 'London Irish Rifles', they also have a spray of shamrocks that radiate from the top of the centre of the scroll upwards to left and right round the harp.

Button (bottom centre)

This is a medium size Kings Crown button, brass, identical in detail to the QVC buttons on the left with the exception of the change of crown. these come in the three sizes and i have seen them in silver plate as well as brass. This is a rare button as it would only have spanned the period 1902 to 1908 when the London Irish Rifle Volunteers became the London Irish Rifles. After this they wore the black horn buttons shown above right.

Shako Plate and Warrant Officers badges. (Centre row)

Centre: A shako plate to the London Irish Rifle Volunteers in die-struck blackened brass, it has two lugs (east and west).A QVC topped Maltese croos with a QVC topped harp to the cente and a scroll which reads 'London Irish Rifle Vols'.

The Kings Crown version of this is identical, with the exception of the change of Crown at the top of the Cross and interestingly ,the centre harp and Crown remain with the QVC in place even the the Crown at the top is the KC!!

Left of centre: Kings crown ,die-cast white metal W. O. caubeen badge, this has a long slider fitted.

Right of centre:Queens crown, die-cast white metal W.O. caubeen badge, this has 2 lugs fitted (north and south) although it was originally fitted with a slider (stump still visible).

Collar badges (third row down).

A pair nor matching of blackened brass collar badges, these have 2 lugs (east and west) and both are die-cast although I have seen good die-struck ones. Beware of London Irish white metal collar badges that are really thin and die-struck, these copies are so thin you can bend them with the sllghest of pressure from your fingers, you will knoe these they are so poorly finished!!

Pork Pie hat and other ranks cap badges

Cente of row: A pork pie hat badge in die-struck white metal, it has a QVC and two lugs (north and south). Interesting to note the three strings only on the harp.

The other two capbadges are Kings crown, die-struck white metal with sliders and you wiil find detailed information and better picture direactly below.

Some other Ranks Capbadges

 

 An other ranks capbadge in gilt, die-struck with a slider. You will note the 'horizontal' line that I mentioned in the Cavalry section . This one is broad and it is a good clear cut example of this phenomena.

This badge has been re-struck for a long time and a lot of them have J R Gaunt London, on the slider, not a good sign. Keep watching for a page that is in prepartion about dating Gaunt badges from the size and position of their makers mark on capbadges. An awful lot of, especially early '70's, re-strikes have this J R Gaunt london on the sliders. Gaunts issued them as re-strikes at the time and not to try and pass them off as genuine, that has been done by others. A lot of the Gaunt strikes were done from original dies and therefore are hard to spot, so others signs of their authencity must be sought,

 
   Another nice example of an other ranks capbadge in die-struck blackened brass (always gives a nice 'matt' finish, beware of anything that has been 'glossed' to try and copy this effect),this one has a slider. The 'line' is present although thinner and not as easy to spot as the example above.(It is not at the point in the slider bends and the light changes from darker to lghter, this is simply where the slider has been bent by a 'wearer' at some stage). you will also note differences in the crown shape from the example above, they have come from different dies. this is important when considering the re-strikes of this badge, more below.  
 

 A fine example of die-struck other ranks capbadge in white metal, this one has a slider with the pressure line just visible.

Good pointers on this one are the 'three rings' at the top right hand strut of the harp, copies have only 1 ring as in the blackened brass and gilt examples above.

 

 

 This is a copy, note that both the white metal copy and the b/brass copies appear to have been struck from the same die, so both look like this regardless of metal type. The nearest I have seen to one of these patterns was a WW2 die used for making Officer patterns, but these had void harp strings and were impressed with a 'P' on the back denoting silver plate and also some were impressed with an 'S' denoting silver at this period. I have in my own collection an Irish Guards Officers capbadge and a 4/7RDG officers capbadge that are impressed with a 'S'. You willl note that the copy has a good quality fimish especially the Crown when compared to the genuine ones above , this is one of the things that I base my (and I stress my!) theory on. I may well be wrong!!

Compare it to the above good examples and you will see the differences for yourself.

Note well the following........

A missing 'bead' at the bottom end of the row of beads on the Crown's left hand side. This must have been caused by damage in the original die.

Along the centre 'strut' (the horizontal one) you will note a row of small 'beads' that run right to left and then run upwards at 90 degrees, on the copy the row that runs up is always a solid line and has no 'beads' on it. Ypu can see in the 3 examples above that this line is always made up of 'beads' and never solid.

The 'support' piece that runs along the outside of the left hane strut is always very large and prominent compared to the goood ones.

The Crown (as already mentioned) is actuallt superior on the copy!

Beware of the 'J R Gaunt London' slider on this badge!!

The WM copy is easily spotted as the pattern of the good one is completely different, more difficult is the b/brass, but with a careful study of these examples above you should be able to tell the good from the bad in this case. Hope this helps. Download these badges if you like and call them up side by side, they are all in my own collection so feel free to do this.