badge, formation, 1st Infantry Division & 2nd Infantry Brigade

A white triangle with red and blue arm of service strip below, all on a square of battle dress material. The arm of service strip could represent either RA or RE, depending on which arm the badge was worn, red to the front denoting RA.

The badge of I Corps (1st Corps) was a white spearhead (symbolising I Corps as the spearhead of the British Army) and the 1st Infantry Division adopted a sign that represented the tip of the spear. The same badge was worn, post-1945, by the 2nd Infantry Brigade. The Division was a Regular Army Division at the outbreak of the Second World War. It fought in the France and Belgium campaign of 1940 following which it was reorganised as a mixed division (comprising 2 infantry and one armoured brigade) between June and November 1942, when it reverted to an infantry division. The Division formed part of 1st Army for the invasion of North West Africa and later took part in the capture of the island of Pantelleria before going to Italy in December 1943. The Division took part in the Anzio battles and thereafter fought northwards through Italy. It transferred to Palestine at the beginning of February 1945. Divisional HQ moved to Tripoli in September 1948, returning to Ismailia in November 1951. The Division returned to the UK in November 1955. By July 1962 the Division was in the British Army ofthe Rhine (BAOR). The same badge is noted by one authority asbeing worn by 2nd Infantry Brigade but the dates when this formation would have worn the badge are not clear. The Brigade appears to have been part of 1st Division up to at least the middle of 1948, when it was a Brigade Group. The Brigade was in Greece in the autumn of 1948, in Eritrea in late 1949, then Cyprus and the Canal Zone around 1950-1952, but whether as an independent formation or simply detached from 1st Division is not clear. In April 1953 it was again a Brigade Group. It does not appear to have been part of 1st Division in BAOR in 1962 and it seems to have became part of a reconstituted 5th Division in April 1968.