Welch Regiment other ranks’ cap badge in anodised aluminium, produced in the Staybright pattern, was worn from approximately 1951 to 1958 and again in 1969 by other ranks of the Welch Regiment of the British Army. This British Army Welsh infantry cap badge displays the recognised regimental device in clear relief, incorporating the Prince of Wales’s plumes — three ostrich feathers emerging from a coronet — as the principal device, with a motto scroll flanking the coronet inscribed “ICH DIEN” (German: “I serve”), the whole surmounted above a lower scroll reading “THE WELCH” in raised block capitals. The badge is produced in anodised aluminium with a bimetal appearance, the coronet and lower scroll in gold anodising and the plumes in silver anodising, consistent with the Staybright other ranks’ production standard introduced across the British Army from 1951 onwards. The reverse carries a slider fitting. The anodised badge is distinguished from the earlier brass and white metal bi-metal construction of the same device worn from 1921 to the introduction of the anodised pattern, the device itself remaining identical across both construction types.
The regiment traces its origins to 1719, when a number of independent companies of invalids were raised, subsequently formed into Colonel Edmund Fielding’s Regiment of Foot, ranked 41st of Foot in 1747 and known as “The Royal Invalids” before being upgraded to a Line Regiment in 1787. In 1831 it was redesignated the 41st (The Welsh) Regiment of Foot, and in 1881 merged with the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot under the Childers Reforms to become The Welsh Regiment — acquiring at the same time the Prince of Wales’s plumes, coronet and motto as its badge device, a distinction acknowledging the regiment’s Welsh county affiliation. In 1920, following a petition to the War Office, the regiment was permitted to revert to the traditional spelling “Welch,” the lower scroll of the cap badge being changed accordingly from “THE WELSH” to “THE WELCH” as existing supplies of the older badge were expended, the new scroll reading being introduced from 1921. The regiment joined the Welsh Brigade in 1958, at which point regular battalion personnel were required to wear the Welsh Brigade badge in place of the regimental badge — giving the pre-1958 anodised regimental badge a production and primary wear window of approximately seven years. When the Welsh Brigade structure was dissolved in 1969, the regiment briefly reverted to wearing its own regimental badge before amalgamating with the South Wales Borderers on 11 June 1969 to form the Royal Regiment of Wales (24th/41st Foot). The regiment was succeeded in 2006 by the Royal Welsh on the amalgamation of the Royal Regiment of Wales with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
Manufactured in anodised aluminium with a slider reverse, consistent with British Army Welsh infantry other ranks’ cap badge production of the 1951 to 1958 staybright period, this original example provides a well-defined representation of the Welch Regiment regimental badge in its anodised production form. Welch Regiment anodised cap badges are collected as examples of post-war British Army Welsh infantry headdress insignia, staybright period regimental badges of the Welsh county regiments, and original uniform hardware of the Welch Regiment in the final years of its independent existence.
Dimensions
Approx. 42mm height x 38mm width
Condition
Good with some light wear
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