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This book first examines the development of the various styles of military head-dress badge from 1751, when the use of private crests and badges was forbidden, to the introduction of 'cap badges' in 1894. From that date, every style of badge for each regiment of the regular Army is described or illustrated. Through the turbulent years of the First World War, and the reductions and amalgamations of the years following, the effects on badge design are detailed.

Buttons are dealt with from the first order to number buttons in 1767, through the era of numbered buttons, to the newly designed buttons adopted in 1881, bearing a regimental badge.

The continuing story of both badges and buttons reflects subsequent reorganisations of the Army and is brought up the present day with the new badges designed for the brigade system of 1958, the large regiments of the 1970s and the radical Army reorganisations and amalgamations since 1990.

Softcover; A5; 88pp

About the Author: Robert Wilkinson-Latham was the fifth generation of his family to be connected with Wilkinson Sword Ltd, though he now runs his own computer consultancy business. He has always had a deep interest in all things military, collecting, researching and since the 1970s writing about militaria, from badges and buttons to uniforms, edged weapons and documents. His books have included British Military Bayonets, Cavalry Uniforms of Britain and the Commonwealth, Infrantry Uniforms of Britain and the Commonwealth (two volumes), Pictorial History of Swords and Bayonets, Swords in Colour, Antique Arms and Armour, Uniforms and Weapons of the Crimean War, From Our Special Correspondent (Victorian War Correspondents and Their Campaigns), and Discovering Artillery. In 2000, after eight years of intensive research, the completed a lengthly two-volume history of Wilkinson Sword Ltd, entitled Mr Wilkinson of Pall Mall.