- Title:
- Cap badge, officer, Women’s Royal Army Corps, sealed pattern, 1950 (c)
- Object name(s):
- cap badge, officer
- Brief description:
- Cap badge, officer, Women’s Royal Army Corps, sealed pattern, 1950 (c). Silver and gilt cap badge with a lioness within a laurel wreath surmounted by a King’s crown, mounted on an Inspectorate of Clothing, Ministry of Supply, working pattern card, with Pattern Number ‘14188’. A ‘sealed pattern’ is a prototype of any item that the British Army issued to soldiers. It provided clothing or equipment suppliers with an example to copy. The wreath and crown come from the badge of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) to indicate their continuity. As lions appear regularly in regimental badges, the lioness is symbolic of the service of women. This is the only example of a lioness appearing on an Army badge. The Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) was formed in 1949. It absorbed what was left of the ATS and then sought to recruit more women into the Army. The motto the Corps adopted was ‘Suaviter in Modo, Fortiter in Re’ (Gentle in Manner, Resolute in Deed). The WRAC was eventually disbanded in 1992 when women were integrated into the rest of the Army. This was the last time there was a separate corps for women in the British Army.
- Collection:
- National Army Museum
- Associated concept:
- Badges
- Current location:
- National Army Museum, Study collection
- Object name:
- cap badge, officer
- Object number:
- NAM. 2003-03-510-1
- Right type:
- Crown Copyright
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/e89ed1ab-fb67-39f9-933e-a0fdee5a1377
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/e89ed1ab-fb67-39f9-933e-a0fdee5a1377, National Army Museum, CC BY-NC
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