*British, WW1, General Service Corps, Brass, Regimental Cap Badge, The Royal Coat of Arms with Queens Crown*
The General Service Corps (GSC) is a corps of the British Army. Its main function is to act as a holding unit for specialists who have not been assigned to other units or corps; these are primarily reservists and the GSC is usually only active in wartime. Its members are on the General List or Special List. From 1914, for the General List and later the General Service Corps, the cap badge has been the Royal Arms, with variously a king’s or a queen’s crown, depending on the reigning monarch. As a result, a GSC nickname was ‘Crosse and Blackwell’ after the firm whose tins and jar labels had a prominent royal coat of arms. The same cap badge has been used for other British Army regiments and corps for which no unique badge has been authorised, including the Royal Reserve Regiments, the later Royal Garrison Regiment, and the Bermuda Militia Infantry.
It bears the Royal Coat of Arms which includes the motto of the Order of the Garter. The Order of the Garter is Britain’s highest and most ancient order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. Its motto is “Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense”, a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French which is translatable as “Shame Be To Him Who Evil Thinks”. At the bottom of the badge is a scroll with the motto Dieu et mon droit, which means ‘God and my right’, the motto of the monarch of the United Kingdom.
Brass Die Cast, approx 8.5cm x 9.5cm
*Condition*
In sound, used condition. The back has no fixing posts. Please see photographs as part of the condition report.
RQMAOXCO_4711140380
