REGIMENTAL BADGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22342, 16 August 1934, Page 6

REGIMENTAL BADGE

Sanction has been given by the British Army Council for officers and men of the Royal Berkshire Regiment to wear a red cloth background to their cap badges. The 2nd Battalion of the regiment, which is stationed at Shorncliffc, near Folkestone, paraded lately with the new additions to their badges. These scraps of red cloth commemorate an incident in the American War of Independence. Following the Battle of Brandywine, in September, 1777, in which Washington had been defeated by General Howe, a detachment of the enemy was surprised and cut up in a forest west of Philadelphia by a British force. This so infuriated the American colonists that they swore they would give no quarter to 'the British troops who had carried out the attack. The Light Companies of the 46th and 49th Regiments—now the 2nd Battalion, D.C.L.1.. and the Ist Battalion, Royal Bcrkshires—had taken a principal part in the affair, and, in reply to the American challenge, dyed red the feathers in their head-dress to warn the colonials where to look. _ , , The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry have worn the red cloth in their cap badges for some time, and when in tropica] kit are accustomed to mount a small rod hackle in the puggarees of their sun helmets.