The Wiltshire Regiment Broken Variant Cap Badge

Material: Brass
Size: 40mm w x 30mm h
Description: This artifact is a damaged original gilding-metal (brass) headdress cap badge for The Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment). The design is based on a classic Maltese cross configuration featuring an embedded central medallion. The interior disc displays a small ducal coronet positioned directly above the intricately reversed and intertwined "AEA" monogram belonging to Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. The lower arm of the cross is stylized with stepped horizontal lines to form an Egyptian pyramid, anchored by a bottom banner scroll reading "THE WILTSHIRE REGIMENT". The item is physically incomplete; the upper cross arm and the large secondary ducal coronet that traditionally surmounted the entire structure have been cleanly broken off, leaving fractured metal edges at the apex of the circle
Circa: 1898-1954
Notes:
In its complete factory state, this uniform piece represents the historic amalgamation of 1881. The central "AEA" cipher celebrates Prince Alfred Ernest Albert, Queen Victoria's second son, whose heraldry dictated the use of two matching ducal coronets on the complete unit badge. The stepped pyramid base pays homage to the heroic exploits of the 62nd Regiment of Foot during the early 19th-century Napoleonic and Egyptian campaigns. This specific configuration layout proved remarkably enduring for the British military, remaining the standard frontline combat issue through both the First and Second World Wars before being updated in the mid-1950s.