Badge of honour

The origin of the cap badge, featuring the Habsburg double-headed eagle, is obscure.

There is an unsubstantiated link with the arms of Earl Leoferic of Mercia, the husband of Lady Godiva, but the Godolphin emblem creates another avenue of speculation.

Godolphin in the 15th Century made a fortune from tin and copper on his estate and built his historic home on the site of an earlier fortified house, Godolghan Castle.

The stone house is now being restored, but the jewel of Godolphin is the Side Garden. About 700 years old, it is possibly the most ancient surviving garden in the country.

Leoferic or Godolphin. One or other may be linked to the Mercian Regiment, but their arms were certainly adopted by the Mercian Brigade in the 1950s.

All the regiments in the brigade, the Cheshires, Staffords, Worcesters and Sherwood Foresters, now incorporated in the Mercian Regiment, bring many idiosyncratic traditions to their grouping.

The Worcesters are known as the Sworders from 1743 in America when officers wore their swords in the mess and beat off an Indian attack.

Again, the Worcesters fought alongside the Lincolns at Sobraon. Officers were honorary members of both messes and, when writing to each other, adjutants always began their letters “My dear cousin.”

The Foresters, with their Derby ram, one of only five mascots in all the British Army, have brought many special traditions to the Mercian fold.

Badajoz Day is observed every April 6. On that day in 1812 the 45th Foot, later the 1st Foresters, stormed the Spanish city of Badajoz.

Realising there was no British flag to signify that the city had fallen, Lt McPherson removed his scarlet jacket and hoisted it up the flagpole.

The Spanish bugle call to summon Sherwood Forester officers to formal mess nights derived from the Peninsular War when the Foresters heard an instrumental call summoning nuns to their convent meal.

The Mother Superior presented the music to the Foresters in appreciation of their exemplary behaviour while they were quartered near her convent.

The Cheshires, known as Young Buffs because of their regimental colour, are the senior antecedent regiment.

They wear oak leaves with their cap badge when in the presence of royalty to recall the Battle of Dettingen in 1743. A detachment of the regiment surrounded an oak tree to protect King George II who was in danger of capture.

The Staffords with their famous knot badge add their lustre to the Mercian story.

Godolphin or Leoferic would be proud of them all.