ive been given this one to research for my fiancee but when checking the cap badge it predates 1919 so im wondering if this regiment still used them in ww2 due to shortage of kit etc? does anyone have a name for the regiment as well?
I may be mistaken, but that looks like the capbadge of The Bedfordshire and Hertrtfordshire Regiment: "A Maltese cross superimposed on an eight pointed star. On this the Garter proper and in the centre a Hart crossing a ford. Below, a scroll inscribed Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire".
you are correct but the scroll only reads bedfordshire. im wondering if the used the old cap badges during the second world war
From what I can establish, although the Regiment took the two names in 1919, it wasn't until 1924 that the "Beds & Herts" cap badge came into being. Is it possible that this photograph is 1920s rather than Second World War? It would explain the fact that it is post-1919, and it may be a case that it took some time for the new 1924 cap badges to filter down to all of the Officers and soldiers in the Regiment, who in the meantime would continue to wear the old one. This would make sense as the "Herts" title seems to have been added in recognition of the number of Hertfordshire men who had served in the Regt during 1914-19, rather thanthe amalgamation of two Regiments. The original (49th) Hertfordshire Regiment had been amalgamated in 1881 with the (66th) Berkshires. The only "Hertfordshire Regiment" in existence after 1881 were the Territorial Force battalions that saw service during the First World War. The final possibility is that may be an "affectation" by a Young Officer (weird breed are YOs). I have recently met someone whose cap badge still had the King's Crown on it. It had been his grandfather's when he had served in the same Corps.
