The wearing of arm badges by NCOs of ‘D’ Squadron (British African) may be evident in Figure 274.
Figure 280: Photograph of a group of ‘D’ Squadron (British African) Troopers at annual camp in 1904 with two Sergeants wearing what appears to be 'D' Squadron (British African) headdress pattern badges above their rank chevrons as NCO's arm badges. The shape of the badge looks slightly different on the angle of the photograph and it may be that these are trade badges and not NCO's' arm badges. Figure 281 shows an NCO's arm badge of ‘E’ Squadron (New Zealand) on the tunic of Sergeant MacIntosh. The arm badge is die-struck gilding metal with non-footed loops. It is of the same size as that of the headdress badge.
Figure 281: An NCO's arm badge of ‘E’ Squadron (New Zealand) on the tunic of Sergeant MacIntosh.
Photographic evidence of the ‘E’ Squadron (New Zealand) arm badge actually being worn by an NCO has not been identified.
A close up from the postcard from the annual camp of the KEH at Aldershot in 1911 (Figure 70) shows that the Serjeant is wearing his KEH Regimental pattern cap badge (likely to be the first pattern 'Saxon' crown variety KK 1506) as they changed to this pattern of headdress badge with the name change from King's Colonials to KEH in 1910. What is fascinating is that he is wearing an Australian 'C' Squadron headdress badge as his NCOs arm badge (KK 1375) and what looks to be matching Australian 'C' Squadron collar badges.
It is the first photograph I have found of this Squadron headdress badge (1905-1910) being worn as an NCOs arm badge. This is not when he was a pre-1910 King's Colonial and wearing a Squadron headdress badge but after he should have changed over to a KEH headdress and KEH NCOs arm badge. The wearing of Squadron collars with KEH headdress badges is well represented in photographs on this website but not NCOs arm badges.
To me this illustrates the pride they showed in their Squadrons and iconic badges of the Dominions they represent.
Figure 282: An NCO's arm badge being worn by a Serjeant of ‘C’ Squadron (Australian) King Edward's Horse from a close up of Figure 70.Unlike other yeomanry or cavalry senior NCO arm badges it is interesting that the King’s Colonials wore an arm badge of the same size and pattern as the headdress badge. It is also likely that these arm badges have the same fixing loops as the headdress badge. The tradition of cavalry and yeomanry senior NCOs wearing arm badges above or on their rank chevrons started in the late 19th century and is carried on today (Linaker, David and Dine, Gordon:
Cavalry Warrant Officers And Non-Commissioned Officers Arm Badges. Military Historical Society, London 1997).
