This book is an invaluable ‘tool of the trade’ for anyone trying to identify or interpret photos. – Peter Hart, Military Historian

Identifying Cap Badges is the book that has been missing from the bookshelves of family historians, military enthusiasts, and badge collectors alike.

It is quite easy to find an erudite book on military cap badges, but you could spend hours, if not days, plodding through hundreds of pictures to find a match for the one you hold. Sometimes you may not find it at all!

These learned badge collector's books have one major flaw; they are pictured and discussed in 'order of precedence', that is to say, from the earliest formed regiments to the latest, with separate sections on medical, engineers, cavalry, infantry, etc. This can be most confusing to those uninitiated into the 'dark arts' of military badges. Thus, if you do not know the name or 'original number' of your regiment in this order of precedence, you can be flummoxed! This, combined with all the different crowns, laurels, animals, mythological beasts and castles, can prove more than a little daunting, even to ex soldiers themselves!

In this book you will find badges ordered by what is on the badge itself; be it a dragon, sphinx or castle, horse, lion or tiger. This is badge identification in minutes, rather than hours, with added information on dating badges and many comparison photographs alongside all the pictures of the badges. Added to these pictures are short histories of the regiments and 'family trees' plotting the antecedents of today's units.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Order of Precedence
• A Short History of the Badge in the British Army
• How to use this Book
• Chapter 1 Uniforms and Badges in Date Order and Some Tips to Help with Dating
• Chapter 2 Birds and Wings
• Chapter 3 Bugle Horns
• Chapter 4 Castles
• Chapter 5 Circles and Ovals
• Chapter 6 Circles and Ovals Surmounted with Crowns
• Chapter 7 Coats of Arms and Shields
• Chapter 8 Cross
• Chapter 9 Dragons
• Chapter 10 Feathers
• Chapter 11 Figures and Faces
• Chapter 12 Flowers and Plants
• Chapter 13 Grenades and Flames
• Chapter 14 Guns
• Chapter 15 Harps
• Chapter 16 Horses
• Chapter 17 Knives, Daggers and Swords
• Chapter 18 Letters, Monograms and Roman Numerals
• Chapter 19 Lions
• Chapter 20 Numbers
• Chapter 21 Other Animals
• Chapter 22 Other ‘Things’
• Chapter 23 Sphinx
• Chapter 24 Stags or Deer
• Chapter 25 Stars
• Chapter 26 Sticks, Rifles and Lances
• Chapter 27 Tanks
• Chapter 28 Tigers
• Chapter 29 Wheels
• Chapter 30 Women’s Services
• Chapter 31 Wreaths
• Where to go Next and Further Research
• Abbreviations Used
• Appendix 1 Cavalry, 1881 to 1922
• Appendix 2 Former Infantry Numbering System up to 1881 and Subsequent Titles
• Appendix 3 The Current Order of Precedence
• Appendix 4 ‘Lost’ Corps
• Appendix 5 Some Previous Lost Units
• Appendix 6 Modern Regiments, Formation Dates, and their Antecedents (as of 2020)
• Appendix 7 Infantry and Infantry of the Line
• Appendix 8 Looking at Photographs
• Appendix 9 Regimental and Service Numbers
• Appendix 10 The Missing Numbers
• Bibliography