Royal Munster Fusiliers officer’s uniform button in gilt metal finish, produced in the pattern worn from 1881 to 1922 by the Royal Munster Fusiliers of the British Army. This British Army fusilier regiment officer’s button displays the recognised regimental device in clear relief, incorporating a fused grenade with a fan of multi-tiered flames as the principal device, the ball of the grenade bearing a Royal Bengal Tiger on the ground with the title scroll around the edge reading “Royal Munster Fusiliers”, consistent with the cap badge device adopted in 1898. The reverse carries a shank loop for attachment and, on original period examples, typically a backmark of a London or Birmingham manufacturer. The officer’s pattern is distinguished from other ranks’ issues by the finer quality of the gilt finish and the crisper definition of the modelling throughout.
The regiment was formed on 1 July 1881 under the Cardwell and Childers Reforms through the amalgamation of the 101st Royal Bengal Fusiliers and the 104th Bengal Fusiliers, both former fusilier regiments of the Honourable East India Company’s Bengal Army. The two predecessor regiments had origins dating to 1652, when the East India Company first established European garrison troops in Bengal; the 101st and 104th were subsequently co-opted into the British Army in 1861 following the dissolution of the Company in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny. The Royal Bengal Tiger device was borne in recognition of long service in India by the predecessor regiments, with the fused grenade common to all fusilier regiments carried forward from the earlier badge patterns of the 101st and 104th. The regiment was recruited in the counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Clare, with its depot headquarters at Tralee. The regiment served in the Second Boer War, and throughout the First World War on the Western Front, at Gallipoli, in East Africa, and in Palestine, raising nine service battalions in addition to its two regular battalions. The regimental motto “Spectamur Agendo” (Latin: “Let Us Be Judged By Our Acts”) reflects the fighting tradition of the regiment across more than two centuries of continuous service. The regiment was disbanded on 31 July 1922 following the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment of the Irish Free State, at which time the colours of the regiment were laid up in a ceremony at Windsor Castle in the presence of King George V.
Manufactured in gilt metal to the officer’s pattern standard, this 26mm button provides a well-defined representation of the Royal Munster Fusiliers regimental device as worn across the Boer War and First World War periods. Royal Munster Fusiliers officers’ buttons are collected as examples of late Victorian and Edwardian British Army fusilier regiment uniform accessories, officers’ insignia of the disbanded Irish regiments of the line, and militaria associated with one of the six Southern Irish regiments disbanded in 1922.
Dimensions 26mm diameter
Condition Excellent
