I saw this badge on this web site Royal Artillery Regiment Collar Badge Is it Royal Artillery? I thought it was Royal Engineers. Can one of you experts help? Or did both branches of the Army use this badge?
That one is Royal Artillery, seven flames. Royal Engineers has nine flames (the additional two are in the middle). Tim
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The bomb/grenade is/was a very common form of military symbol and was/is used by a variety of different units including some grenadier and fusilier regiments
Well you learn something every day. I have never counted the flames on them. The Royal Fusilier Cap Badge has a broader flame as has the Grenadier Guards. Sat next to RE's on frequent occasions but never noticed how many flames theirs had. Could have made a good talking point in the mess. Had to be a sailor to ask that question. I was however surprised when I began researching the 67th Field Regt when I saw everyone in photos wearing what I always thought was an officers cap badge, although it was worn as a collar dog by O/R's on their No1 Dress. It has been suggested that they chose to wear it as they had a surplus of collar dogs when their berets were issued. I will go back to the photos I posted and count the flames!
The use by Fusiliers goes back away. The Madras and Bombay Fusiliers both had a grenade badge which carried forward when they merged and became the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
I my memory serves me well ( sometimes it goes astray) they began life as the European Bombay Fusiliers raised in Liverpool sailed via Gibraltar and Aden to Bombay, were involved in the Sikh Wars. I did an Ancestry for a neighbour whose father who came to the UK in 1947 as he was blonde with blue eyes. He had a very bad time in the separation. He served in the Royal Artillery at Douali his gt gt grandfather was in the European Bombay Fusiliers his father fought in the Peninsular War in the Dragoon Guards married in Gibraltar and came back to England to work in Ilfracombe as a Customs and Excise man. His son moved to Cheshire where the family originated and joined the European Bombay Fusiliers employed by the East India Company. My family are from North Devon Challacombe and Ilfracombe and were no doubt aware of the Customs and Excise men one way or another.