This Rifle Brigade cap badge, topped with the King’s Crown, was discovered near Walton-on-the-Hill, behind Epsom Downs, where a vast training camp, known as the “miniature city of marquees and tents” once accommodated around 10,000 soldiers preparing for service in Europe.
The Rifle Brigade was among the army’s most highly regarded regiments, trained as skilled marksmen and skirmishers whose tactics emphasised speed, accuracy and flexibility. This badge would have been worn with pride, symbolising regimental identity and loyalty to the King.
You can read more about this important site here: Tadworth WW1 Training Camp.
Though small, this cap badge offers a deeply human link to the thousands of young men who passed through Surrey in uniform. As many did not return, finds like this serve as powerful reminders of service, sacrifice and the regiments that helped shape the region’s wartime history.
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