Description
ROYAL ARMOURED CORP CAP BADGE
The 1st pattern Royal Corp cap badge, was constructed in white metal which included a crowned laurel leaf with King’s crown, with clenched mailed fist in the centre, right palm facing with inscription RAC on the cuff.
BRIEF HISTORY
The Royal Armoured Corps was created in April 1939 to administer and train all the mechanised cavalry regiments and the Royal Tank Corps (renamed the Royal Tank Regiment to avoid the anomaly of a Corps being part of another Corps) and to be a central recruiting body.
In due course all armoured units, with the exception of the Household Cavalry, became part of the RAC. The first Royal Armoured Corp cap badge adopted was a traditional and uninspired design of a crowned laurel wreath enclosing the Corps’ initials. By 1941 a more dynamic badge had been designed and approved, a mailed fist representing armoured power with flanking encircling arrows denoting the manoeuvre potential of mechanised forces.
This design was sealed on 3 January 1942. From the outset the policy adopted was that all cavalry and Yeomanry regiments within the RAC, including the Royal Tank Regiment, were to retain their own cap badges. About half of the thirty-three infantry battalions converted to armour, and which became numbered regiments of the RAC, adopted the RAC badge. The remainder adopted the black beret but retained their previous cap badges, presumably on the precedent of the policy adopted for the cavalry and Yeomanry regiments. The RAC badge was, therefore, worn principally by recruit training units and some RAC HQ staff. A Queen’s crown version of the badge was sealed on 20 June 1958.