Uncles Crossed Rifles Badge

[Chris Pyne]

Can anyone help me identify a badge from my uncle?  It is Hallmarked gold, I think it is G date letter and an anchor symbol so that is Birmingham 1931 but they are very small symbols.  It looks like a cap badge but there is no pin on the back. He was in the Army, roughly 1965-1975, and his father, my grandfather, was in WW2 in Europe, Germany. He was fond of buying gold and expensive watches during his travels, he went all over the world in his army service, so it might not have any family connections but it is one of his personal items.

[cliffkinch]

Quick bit of googling as Im just an observer in this subject, seems to lead to a sharpshooters badge, however it's gold and the scroll is blank, maybe it was a prize or an award for sharpshooting
Just a thought
Cliff

[Chris Pyne]

Thanks Cliff,

That looks like the probable answer. I found some similar designs for Army shooting badges. Also discovered that Birmingham Mint was a popular source of quality badges.

[John915]

Good afternoon,

It looks to me to be a winners badge in the civilian world of fullbore or smallbore target shooting. Most likely a particular club rather than the NRA or NSRA. I will have a look at there old recorded awards to see if there is anything like this.

John915

[Chris Pyne]

Thanks John,

Might be. When Uncle left the Army he went to work for MOD and managed a Firing Range. He does have some Army Shooting trophies but these are small spoons with his details on.
thanks
Chris

[John915]

Good morning,

I have searched through the NRA medals online images. I can find nothing like this anywhere. To my knowledge the regular army and militia never used gold awards at anytime. However the volunteer units did although I can find none like yours. They were mostly circular disc type medals or shields. This would also have been pre 1908 as that is when militia and volunteer units became the territorial force.

The crossed rifles would appear to be, although not totally accurate, Lee Enfield no 1s. Again pre 1900 but used a lot even now. The wreath is also odd in that the left side has laurel leaves but the right is some other type of leaf but I can't decide what. Is it on a ribbon or just a ring to attach to something.

So my thinking is that it was for a particular club who would have had them made in gold, silver and bronze for their annual shoot. Most clubs and county associations still do this although the medals are base metal coloured to look like gold, silver and bronze. I have quite a few upstairs, mostly silver and bronze I have to admit.

If it is ok with you I will send the picture to the NSRA  and see if they can include in the next magazine. Perhaps someone will recognise it.

John915

[Chris Pyne]

Hi John,
Thanks for the research. Yes, please do submit to a more specialist group.  I have looked at this multiple times and never spotted that the leaves are different on each side !   The ring at the top is used to attach it to a gold chain. I'll post a larger picture.  thanks Chris

[John915]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the ok on that. Could you post pictures of both sides of the medal. It all helps for others to see the whole thing.

John915

[Chris Pyne]

OK, here is a combined image of the front and reverse. 
I don't think I am losing too much detail squeezing it down to under 500K. With the 3.5M original images, there is blurring due to the reflections off the gold.
I believe the Hallmark is [TF] [9] [375] [anchor] [G].

I think TF could be Thomas Fattonni, 1907-1938  a badge, button, dish, fob, medal, spoon, trophy cup manufacturer. Trafalgar Medal Works, Regent Street, Birmingham
https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/Birmingham-TC-TG.html

thanks
Chris