Material: Bronze
Size: 67mm w × 42mm h
Description: An officer’s service-dress cap badge of the Lancashire Fusiliers. A flaming grenade forms the principal device, its rounded body bearing a Sphinx above a tablet inscribed “EGYPT,” enclosed by a laurel wreath. Below, a tiered scroll carries the regimental title, “THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS.”
The badge has a warm copper-brown color and a predominantly matte surface, with lighter highlights on the raised details. The reverse shows the hollow grenade body, the attachment of the central device, and two broad, flat fastening blades attached behind the title scroll and folded inward.
Circa: 1897-1968
Notes:
The Lancashire Fusiliers were a British Army infantry regiment whose history stretched back to 1688. Closely associated with Bury, Lancashire, they served in numerous campaigns and both World Wars before becoming part of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in 1968.
They are famously remembered for “six VCs before breakfast”: six Victoria Crosses awarded for bravery during the 1st Battalion’s landing at W Beach, Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915.
J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, also served with the regiment, fighting with its 11th Battalion on the Somme in 1916.
Sources and further reading: