Cherrypicker beret,no badge..why?

**tankie88** · 28-06-2009, 15:08

Yesterday i bumped into a ex cherrypicker at a forces day do.The guy had a cherrypicker beret with no badge,just a coloured band above the headband.What's that all about????

**BevisRory** · 28-06-2009, 15:14

Perhaps, he was y'know...

Them?

**Arte_et_Marte** · 28-06-2009, 15:26

I was attached to the Royal Hussars and they were (rightly) proud of their cap badge.

fleur-de-lis with "ich" and "dien" either side and "THE ROYAL HUSSARS" on a scroll beneath.

No idea what the band on the beret that you saw was all about. What colour was it?

**tankie88** · 28-06-2009, 15:30

I think it was a blue band or green.He was a cherrypicker in the 60's.

**MittMayo** · 28-06-2009, 15:31

Originally Posted by tankie88

I think it was a blue band or green.He was a cherrypicker in the 60's.

Perhaps he had lost it?

**Tawahi-50** · 28-06-2009, 15:33

11TH Hussars(Prince Albert's Own)

No cap badge,

Allegedly King George 6th stated that the beret was so distinctive no cap badge was necessary.

**Arte_et_Marte** · 28-06-2009, 15:35

I was with them in Fallingbostel around 1983-1985 when they were the Prince of Wales own before they amalgamated (again!) in the 90's

He should have had a cap badge.

Perhaps it fell off

**WarpSpasm** · 28-06-2009, 15:35

One of the antecedent regiments (either 10th or 11th Hussars - can't remember or be bothered looking it up) wore a beret without cap badge in certain orders of dress/ranks/epochs (again, too lazy to dig out the reference).

**light_projector** · 28-06-2009, 15:35

11H did not have a capbadge with beret before amalgamation with 10H. Just brown beret with crimson/cherry/pink whatever they call it. band.

**soprano54** · 28-06-2009, 15:37

Originally Posted by tankie88

Yesterday i bumped into a ex cherrypicker at a forces day do.The guy had a cherrypicker beret with no badge,just a coloured band above the headband.What's that all about????

You'll probably find that they had an important visitor ie Regt Col, who turned up without one in his titfer!

So rather than show him up everbody was ordered to take their's out and it kinda stuck!

Originally Posted by tankie88

I think it was a blue band or green.He was a cherrypicker in the 60's.

It was the same colour as the trousers..................crimson!

**Arte_et_Marte** · 28-06-2009, 15:41

Originally Posted by Tawahi-50

11TH Hussars(Prince Albert's Own)

No cap badge,

Allegedly King George 6th stated that the beret was so distinctive no cap badge was necessary.

He should have had a cap badge.

Perhaps it fell off

Tawahi-50
You may well be correct but I did find this link

11th Hussars

edited in order to cut my post down to size

**TalaveraTom** · 28-06-2009, 15:48

The 10th Royal Hussars (PWO) were amalgamated with the 11th Hussars (PAO) in 1969 to form The Royal Hussars as we know it today. The motto of the 11th was TREU UND FEST and there badge became the crest of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The regiment when wearing their brown berets with a crimson band did not wear a badge, possibly to do with anti German feeling during WW1?...I can only assume that this chap you saw, was ex 11th Hussars and decided to keep to his original traditions whilst acknowledging the amalgamation by wearing a Cherrypickers lid.

Hope this helps?

**Tawahi-50** · 28-06-2009, 15:54

Originally Posted by Arte_et_Marte

Tawahi-50
You may well be correct but I did find this link

11th Hussars

Thanks for that;

I am surprised at them for not making it clearer but what I take it to mean is that there was a time when they DID wear beret badges up to the point where KG6 issued his edict.

Some of the post war photos on the site seem to show badgeless beret wearers but none big enough to show for certain.

But certainly post war up to the amalgamation with 10RH, they didn't wear a beret badge.

Incidentely 11H beret is/was the second oldest- RTR being the first of course, the Cherrypickers beret came into use when they mechanised circa 1928.

**WaltOnTheMildSide** · 28-06-2009, 15:55

Check the 'previous page' on that link: The 11th Early Days of Mechanisation - no badges.

11H (with 12L) were the first cavalry regiments to be mechanised in 1928. I don't know what headdress 12L used, but 11H followed the Tanks and chose a beret - chocolate brown crown with a broad cherry-red headband. I assume the veteran in question was a WW2 vintage Cherrypicker.

4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) wore a green cloth band on a black RAC beret but with a capbadge.

Edited

**The Sailor** · 28-06-2009, 16:11

I remember reading about this no badge business many years ago as a child, it was in a comic, The Victor or similar. The story given in the comic was that a patrol from a horse regiment were caught unawares by the French in a cherry orchard whilst picking the fruit and I think maybe a standard was lost. The powers that be at the time punished the regiment by taking it's badge off it, this is the story as I read it and never questioned it later in life. Maybe there is another reason?

Jim