History of The British Army Infantry Collar Badge: Colin Churchill

Colin Churchill’s, History of the British Army Infantry Collar Badge.
A formable reference work well worth having, BUT having said that!
It’s up there with the best but for me let down by its layout.

J.M. Brereton’s A Guide to the Regiments and Corps of the British Army is what I believe to be a good example of a good layout, starting with the modern regiment then in order of priority having the regiment that formed it.
Maybe the cost of printing prevented such a layout for Colin Churchill’s History of the British Army infantry Collar Badge.

There’s no direct reference for many regiments, the Queen’s Regiment’s formation of 1966 for example has many references for the former regiment such as The Royal Sussex Regiment but no section devoted to The Queens.
This carries on throughout the book with very good examples of the 1881 amalgamations but direct reference to later major changes such as the Kings Own Royal Border Regiment (and many more) to be found in the former regiment titles as The Kings Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) in the section for Rifle Volunteer Corps.
Another example of this would be The Anglian Brigade, rather than having a page or named section the brigade in mentioned in the general section of The Royal Norfolk and The Royal Leicestershire Regiments.
The author does state that there are some regiments missing and would be included in a later publication however the layout I feel lends itself to the more experienced collector rather than someone who doesn’t exactly know what he/she is looking for.

The title for me could also be said to be a little misleading, a book entitled ‘History of’ printed in 2001 should I believe have had a section on the 1995 options for change, which is sadly missing.

Also many of the photo illustrations are quite dark making it hard to see details but the others do make up for them.

Faults it may have but a great deal of work has gone into it and I believe it’s still a very good reference work, I know of no other book with such a large number of badges to compare.
Only my opinion for what it's worth and I'm sure many will disagree.
Regards
WF

Very good review, thank you

Thanks Sean
Many regimental badges are missing from various amalgamations, have examples shown that were worn by the new regiment without reference to that regiment which can I believe make it confusing (confusing for my single white cell anyway).
Even 1959 amalgamations are just mentioned in the general text of the former regiments.

Take the fusiliers.
In the Northumberland Fusiliers section there is mention of the Fusilier Brigade collar badge but no mention of the fact that the same badge is in use today for the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, just that the regiment became the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
There’s just a note to say that the Royal Fusiliers and Lancashire Fusiliers formed the 3rd and 4th battalions The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in their respective sections.

This continues throughout the book which I believe makes it hard work for those who don’t know regimental history.

I’m not disappointed by the book, it's very good. I just wish to point out that it’s far from a complete history but it is a great work of reference on a complicated subject.

If you or anyone else have, or have seen the book do you think this is a fair assessment?
Sorry to ramble on!
Regards
WF