Jamaica Militia badge info please

[rusticalex]

Hi all

My first post, so greetings to all.

I have a reasonable collection of badges, buttons, bullion, via my family, many of which I know nothing or little about, so hopefully I'll be busy discovering more about this collection with your help!

The first thing that intrigues me is a Jamaica Militia badge, as per photo. I would like to know more about this regiment, including dates, and exactly where the badge might have been worn. Also, a rough valuation would be appreciated. I can not post in the guests' section, and it won't let me post in the members only valuation section, so I hope this is the right place!! Sorry admin if it is not!

Thanks

Alex

[rusticalex]

And the reverse...

[rusticalex]

I've found out some stuff:

History of the JDF

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) was formed just a few days prior to Jamaica becoming a sovereign independent State within the Commonwealth of Nations. Although the Force itself is still young, it has a long history of descent and traditions stemming from units raised in the West Indies since the mid-seventeenth century.

Early Origins

Its original predecessor was the ancient Jamaica Militia of 1662, the immediate successor to Oliver Cromwell’s troops which had taken Jamaica from the Spaniards a mere seven years earlier. In 1694, in the only invasion of Jamaica other than the English one of 1655, the French landed a force of over 1,400 men at Carlisle Bay in southern Clarendon. Here they were met by militiamen, initially only some 250, who alone – without support from any naval or regular army units – repulsed the French with about 100 men killed or wounded. Estimates of the French losses were between 150 and 350.

The various cavalry and infantry regiments of the Jamaica Militia remained on call, at first for fear of further French attacks, although after Carlisle Bay there were none. Therefore, those early part-time soldiers spent most of their time in uniform in an internal security role, which largely meant dealing with slave disturbances.

Later, however, with justified fear of Napoleonic incursions, the Militia reached its maximum strength at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with 10,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry divided between three regiments of horse, one for each county, and 18 regiments of foot, one for each of the then 18 parishes of Jamaica – and commanded at one time by no less than four Major Generals.

In 1906, at a time of established international peace, and after nearly two and a half centuries of existence, the Jamaica Militia was finally disbanded. Some of its members formed themselves into the semi-official St Andrew Rifle Corps and when war came to the world in 1914 its members were re-embodied as the Kingston Infantry Volunteers. At the start of World War II in 1939 these part-time soldiers were renamed, this time as the Jamaica Infantry Volunteers (JIV). Towards the end of the war, in 1944, in recognition of its then unit status the JIV was retitled ‘The Jamaica Battalion’, and finally eleven years later – ‘The Jamaica Regiment’.

So I know this badge is at least 103 years old, and possibly quite rare. Any more info would be much appreciated!

[leigh kitchen]

All I had was a lttle bit of info re later units, nothing to The Jamaica Miltia, interesting.