Description
Physical description
Headdress badge to officers of "The Queen's Lancashire Regiment", being a St. Edward's (Queen's) crown surmounting a Lancashire rose within a voided vertical oval embossed THE QUEEN'S LANCASHIRE REGIMENT, below being a downward scroll embossed LOYALLY I SERVE. Rose with red enamel petals, remainder gilt. Captioned: Cap Badge. Two loops to reverse.
Physical description
Box 58: Mounting card captioned "The Queen's Lancashire Regiment Officers" on which 6 items, one of which a pair, (10774-10778). Reverse with a green sealing wax oval seal with MINISTRY OF DEFENCE / PATTERN ROOM with in the centre ARMY / OFFICERS. Small additional sealing wax deposits, red and green, to reverse of some fixings. A small lead disc seal fastens the cotton tape. Top left, an oval red stamp with "Q (MAINT) 2" / MINISTRY OF DEFENCE" with across the centre "15 Jun 1970". Ms notation top right: "37" in a circle.
History note
"The Queen's Lancashire Regiment" was a Regular unit of the British Army active from 1970 to 2006. Created on 25 March 1970 by the amalgamation of "The Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Volunteers)" and "The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)", both erstwhile Lancastrian Brigade units.
History note
The Lancastrian Brigade was one of some dozen HQs set up in 1948 to administer groups of regiments, mostly within geographical areas. In 1958 the Brigades apparently became more formalised, with constituent regiments required to wear a common headdress badge. In July 1968, groups of these Brigades amalgamated to form around six HQs with similar administrative responsibilities to the Brigades, but now called 'Divisions'. The change was accompanied by a further round of amalgamations among the regiments, and as there was to be no common Divisional cap badge, regiments re-adopted their previous cap badges or designed new ones to reflect new amalgamations. The Lancastrian Brigade was absorbed, with others, into the 'King's Division'.
History note
During 1958 six of the seven Lancastrian Brigade's regiments amalgamated to create three new units, one of which was "The Lancashire Regiment", formed from "The East Lancashire" and "The South Lancashire (Prince of Wales's Volunteers)" Regiments. On 25 March 1970, "The Lancashire Regiment" amalgamated with "The Loyal Regiment" (which had not amalgamated in 1958) to create "The Queen's Lancashire Regiment". The badge of which this item is an example was adopted at this time.
History note
On 1 July 2006 "The Queen's Lancashire Regiment" was absorbed into the new "The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's Lancashire and Border)" as that unit's 1st Battalion. The Battalions did not carry heritage sub-titles.
History note
The central motif of "The Queen's Lancashire Regiment's" badges, both headdress and collar, is the red rose of Lancashire. This derives from two of its predecessor regiments, "The East Lancashire" and "The Loyal", where the motif was a central element. Both of these units were part of the Lancastrian Brigade, whose central headdress motif was similarly the Lancashire rose. The motto scroll to the headdress badge also derives from a predecessor regiment, 81st of Foot, which in 1881 became "2nd Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment". The 81st was raised by Colonel Albermarle Bertie, whose motto "Loyaute m'oblige" was adopted by the unit in the form "Loyally I Serve".
History note
In 2003, for reasons that are unclear, a new design of cap badge was adopted, a crowned rose with a short name scroll below embossed QUEEN'S LANCASHIRE. The officers' badge had red enamel petals, soldiers' badges were issued in plain gold anodised, which they were required to paint red.
History note
Both the earlier and later headdress badge was worn with a primrose diamond-shaped backing. The colour derived from the facings worn by the 30th Foot, a predecessor regiment of the East Lancashires. The diamond shape also derived from The East Lancashires when their 2nd Battalion adopted a white diamond helmet flash in India in 1902-3. The colour and shape were combined in 1945 when 1st Battalion East Lancashires adopted a primrose diamond cap badge backing.
Embossed
THE QUEEN'S LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
Inscription
LOYALLY I SERVE