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Imperial Light Infantry badges 6 years 9 months ago #54147

  • Brett Hendey
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Since I am only an incidental collector of badges, I cannot necessarily judge their rarity. However, over the years I have got the distinct impression that badges of the Imperial Light Infantry are certainly not common, and may in fact be exceedingly rare.

Colin Owen's book records only two types:


A third type was listed on Spink's ABW Anniversary sale in 1999:


There may, of course, be others, and, if so, I hope that someone will post them on this thread.

The badges illustrated above are likely to have been made in Pietermaritzburg, where the ILI was raised in September 1899. The regiment was made up largely of refugees from the Transvaal ("Uitlanders"), and, like its mounted counterpart, the Imperial Light Horse, the men had scores to settle with the Boers. The regiment went on to exist only for the duration of General Buller's Natal Campaign. To its original enlistment it probably added more men during the war to fill the gaps left by casualties. Other irregular regiments raised in Natal (e.g. Imperial Light Horse, Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, Bethune's Mounted Infantry) served throughout the war, so far more men passed through their ranks than was the case with the ILI.

Another factor contributing to the rarity of ILI badges occurred to me a day or two ago when , after a long wait, I was finally able to add an ILH title to my collection:


This one is evidently Owen's No. 2135. It is a surprisingly fragile badge made of thin brass. It has a single crosspiece curled in at the ends, which are perforated to served as integral lugs. The letters are soldered on to the crosspiece. This badge may well have been unable to stand up to rough treatment, and many could have been lost this way. Other titles made in Natal at this time were commonly of thick sheet brass, which is the case with the ILI title sold by Spink. Owen's No. 2136 also seems to be a sturdier type.

Like the ILH, the ILI acquited themselves well while on active service, particularly at Spioenkop and Tugela Heights. Major Tylden's book on the armed forces of South Africa records that the regiment lost 35 men killed and 95 wounded out of its initial enlistment of about 1000. Many of the men went on to serve in other units after the ILI was demobilised. The medals of one such man are shown below.

Brett
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Imperial Light Infantry badges 6 years 9 months ago #54165

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A fascinating post, Brett. Many thanks.
Dr David Biggins

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Imperial Light Infantry badges 6 years 9 months ago #54353

  • Frank Kelley
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Hello Brett,
That is a very pleasing and scarce thing, I had meant to reply to this upon originally seeing it, but, will do so in due course, your thread seems to have started a particular interest over the past week on this forum.
Regards Frank


Brett Hendey wrote: Since I am only an incidental collector of badges, I cannot necessarily judge their rarity. However, over the years I have got the distinct impression that badges of the Imperial Light Infantry are certainly not common, and may in fact be exceedingly rare.

Colin Owen's book records only two types:



A third type was listed on Spink's ABW Anniversary sale in 1999:


There may, of course, be others, and, if so, I hope that someone will post them on this thread.

The badges illustrated above are likely to have been made in Pietermaritzburg, where the ILI was raised in September 1899. The regiment was made up largely of refugees from the Transvaal ("Uitlanders"), and, like its mounted counterpart, the Imperial Light Horse, the men had scores to settle with the Boers. The regiment went on to exist only for the duration of General Buller's Natal Campaign. To its original enlistment it probably added more men during the war to fill the gaps left by casualties. Other irregular regiments raised in Natal (e.g. Imperial Light Horse, Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, Bethune's Mounted Infantry) served throughout the war, so far more men passed through their ranks than was the case with the ILI.

Another factor contributing to the rarity of ILI badges occurred to me a day or two ago when , after a long wait, I was finally able to add an ILH title to my collection:


This one is evidently Owen's No. 2135. It is a surprisingly fragile badge made of thin brass. It has a single crosspiece curled in at the ends, which are perforated to served as integral lugs. The letters are soldered on to the crosspiece. This badge may well have been unable to stand up to rough treatment, and many could have been lost this way. Other titles made in Natal at this time were commonly of thick sheet brass, which is the case with the ILI title sold by Spink. Owen's No. 2136 also seems to be a sturdier type.

Like the ILH, the ILI acquited themselves well while on active service, particularly at Spioenkop and Tugela Heights. Major Tylden's book on the armed forces of South Africa records that the regiment lost 35 men killed and 95 wounded out of its initial enlistment of about 1000. Many of the men went on to serve in other units after the ILI was demobilised. The medals of one such man are shown below.

Brett

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Imperial Light Infantry badges 6 years 8 months ago #54418

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Hello Brett,
Sorry again for the late reply, this week is ending just as the week before started, with precious little time for anything, my thoughts are as follows.
2035 is very typical of the famous Rand jeweller, List Brothers, they produced a great many badges for both the Imperial Light Horse and Imperial Light Infantry, with each letter incised from gilt brass and applied to a piece of square wire, either, at the bottom or usually in the centre of the three letters.
2136 is likely to have been made actually on the Rand and in my opinion will be a little later, because of the differing material used.
496 in that particular sale is also, in my opinion, probably, late rather than early, but, all very different than your own handsome example, which appears very similar to the large Bethune's Mounted Infantry badge, which I believe was worn on the helmet. given the size of the rectangular bar, the letters are attached to, clearly not made for a Torin or indeed, a humble Field Service Cap and rather strange for a slouch hat.
It is my belief that the founder members of this regiment, in common with, for example, Thorneycroft's MI, wore, at the point of inception, the Torin and the Helmet, with their officers obtaining the Slouch Hat very early on.

I was interested to note in your post, the date of September 1899 and Pietermaritzburg, in connection with the ILI, where does that information come from please?

To the very best of my knowledge the regiment was certainly disbanded in Pietermaritzburg, on the 15th of July 1901.
It had been raised, for official purpose, at least, on the 9th of November 1899 in Natal, but, a look through WO126 suggests to me that it was actually Durban, rather than Pietermaritzburg, certainly, very many founder members of the regiment actually joined there, including, I have to say, all those recipients in my collection, who were all founder members.

I very much like your badge and I think that in common with other examples, it is actually a pretty rare thing and I would be delighted with it.
It really cannot be compared with the Imperial Light Horse, the ILH went on in the SAMIF for rather longer before disbandment, with many shoulder titles, subsequently worn by members of the Transvaal Volunteers and Active Citizen Force, actually assumed to be worn in the Anglo Boer War.
Regards Frank

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Imperial Light Infantry badges 6 years 8 months ago #54427

  • Brett Hendey
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Frank
Many thanks for correcting my misapprehensions about the ILI and its badges. I really do need to start an ILI file to store information about the regiment. I once tried in vain to find a copy of its history, and perhaps I will now try again, even though it is very late in the day.
Regards
Brett

PS I have recently taken more of an interest in ABW badges on the market, and it seems the demand for them is not great. This does not bode well for my heirs, since, in spite of my earlier expectations, those I have invested in may not fetch much after all.

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Imperial Light Infantry badges 6 years 8 months ago #54431

  • Frank Kelley
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Morning Brett,
I realised this morning that I had not added anything yesterday, the attached, for your interest are two typical examples from that little long gone workshop on West Street, the little gilt officers Torin badge and a more usual, but, very well made example.
On the medal side, a great many of these men did serve throughout the Natal Campaign to it's conclusion, Trooper Lucian Des Clayes was certainly one of those, but, I dare say for Sergeant Edwin Jones of Steinacker's Horse, the fight in Natal was merely water under the bridge.
Kind regards Frank
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