Badges of "THE ROYAL SCOTS" & Para Regiment

[ilclifton]

Hello to everybody,

I've alot of questions: can somebody help me in the identification of these two badges ? What means the digit 5 on the back ?

Has these badges some commercial value ?

Thank for your help.

Best regrads, il-clifton

[peter monahan]

Good Day

Very imprseeive badges! They are what are called "plaid brooches" . Many Scottish bagpipers wear a "plaid" - a sort of short cape - over one shoulder and hanging down their back. It comes across the chest and is pinned together at the left shoulder with a large brooch or badge, usually decorated with a clan or regimental device.

So what you have here are two plaid badges made for someone who was a piper for the Royal Scots Regiment and perhaps for the Parachute Regiment as well - I don't know if they have a pipe band but it should be easy to find out. These kind of badges would be made by a jeweller these days, not issued by the Army, and, like the kilts, the pipes and so on, paid for by private funds from the regiment. So, the number - I can't see it in your photos - would be an identification number put on it by the makers or by someone in the regiment to make sure the badge didn't get lost or confused witrh someone else's badge. Often the badges are silver or silver plated and are quite expensive.

I hope this all helps a bit.

Peter

Edited January 18, 2009 by peter monahan

[peter monahan]

Here is a good picture of a plaid, showing the brooch on the left shoulder.

[ilclifton]

Thank you for all these valuables informations. As usual is enought to post a topic to our forum and I can collect answers to all my questions. Thank you again.

il-clifton

[leigh kitchen]

The Para Regiment brooch - looks like a collar badge fitted a field workshop or otherwise locally made wreath?

It would have been worn by a Para Regt unit which had Scottish origins.

The Royal Scots brooch bears the Victorian Crown, so pre-1902, although I don't know if the regiment kept that pattern in use for any great length of time after the crown should have changed to the Kings Crown.

[The Saint]

The Parachute Regiment plaid brooch could have been worn by a piper of the 15th (Scottish) Battalion, Parachute Regt, a Territorial Army unit which existed 1947-1993.

The unit has been reduced to a company since then.