badge, headdress, British, The King's (Liverpool) Regiment, 5th Territorial Battalion

The White Horse of Hanover standing on ground. Below it is a scroll inscribed The King's. All in blackened-brass.

Cap badge of the 5th (Territorial) Battalion, King's (Liverpool Regiment), originally made up of pre-war Territorial soldiers

Badge of pattern worn 1898 - 1921. The Regiment's first predecessor had been raised in 1685 as Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Foot. In 1702 it was re-designated The Queen's Regiment of Foot, and again in 1716 as the King's Regiment of Foot. By this time it had acquired the nickname of the King's Hanoverian White Horse, presumably because of a regimental distinction being the white horse of Hanover. It was known by a succession of colonels' names until 1751 when it was designated the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot. At this time it was formally awarded the White Horse of Hanover as a regimental device. In 1874 the Regiment adopted a badge comprising a figure 8, above which the prancing horse of Hanover, all within a belt circlet inscribed KING'S REGIMENT, surmounted by a crown. In 1881 the Regiment was re-designated The King's (Liverpool) Regiment and the badge re-designed with the prancing horse with hind legs on ground becoming the centre of a circlet inscribed LIVERPOOL. At this time it was granted the right to wear a red backing to the badge as a Royal Regiment. In 1898 the badge was re-designed for wear on the cap, with the horse on ground as the only motif, with a scroll below inscribed THE KING'S. In 1921 the Regiment was again re-designated, now as The King's Regiment (Liverpool) and the design of the badge changed to a slightly larger version of the horse being placed on a torse and the scroll reading simply KING'S, which pattern was sealed 4 May 1927. The custom of wearing a red badge backing was discontinued during World War One but was re-introduced by 2nd Battalion when serving in Italy in World War Two. In 1958 the Regiment amalgamated with the Manchester Regiment to form the King's Regiment, in the Lancastrian Brigade, adopting the Lancastrian cap badge. In 1970 the Regiment regained its own identity, still as the King's Regiment, with a cap badge of the Hanover horse superimposed over the Manchester's fleur de lis. From 2006 the Regiment continued to exist as a representative component of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's Lancashire and Border).

The King's