1st Battallion Colours 1899

The Colours of the 1st battalion were presented to them by Queen Victoria in 1899. They are shown here with two privates of the battalion in a photo published in the Navy and Army Illustrated of that year. The regimental Colour on the left is yellow, the colour of their facings. It follows the 1881 regulations in that the upper canton or corner nearest the pole no longer has a small Union Flag. There are 24 battle honours arranged in a circular pattern around the Union wreath and Victorian Crown. The 1st Battalion had recently brought themselves to the attention of the Queen, and the British people following their heroic assault on the Heights of Dargai in the Tirah campaign. Unfortunately the battle honour for TIRAH is missing from the Colour since it was not awarded until 1900. The 24 honours range from MYSORE to CHITRAL. Two more honours are to be seen in the bottom corners, the Tiger of INDIA and the Sphinx of EGYPT. The central device is the Roman numeral I for the 1st Battalion, and the circular girdle with the Regimental title.
The Queen's Colour on the right is the Union Flag with the regimental title in a circle surrounding the numeral I. The Queen's Crown surmounts this. No battle honours were allowed on the Colour at this stage, but in 1919 it was realised that the First World War had produced so many honours that it would not be feasible to add them all on the Regimental Colour. It was therefore decided that 10 of the honours would be placed on the King's Colour. After World War 2 ten more were sewn on.

Regimental Colours | Regimental details