A beret looks like the simplest piece of kit in the entire British Army wardrobe — a flat circle of wool, no structure, no fuss. And yet the colour of that circle is one of the most fiercely earned, fiercely guarded details in the whole uniform. There are more colours in service right now than most people realise, and every single one means something specific. Get it wrong and you'll find out exactly how much it matters, fast.
Maroon: the Parachute Regiment
The maroon beret marks genuine airborne capability — it signals the Parachute Regiment's ethos of rapid deployment and sustained operations in difficult conditions, and wearing it means you've actually completed parachute training to earn it. It isn't handed out for turning up.
Genuine maroon Parachute Regiment beret, full military spec wool.
Shop genuine maroon berets →Green: Commando forces
The green beret is still worn today by Royal Marines who've passed the Commando Course, and by personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF who've passed the gruelling All Arms Commando Course — it's a cross-service qualification badge, not a Royal Marines-exclusive colour, though the Corps is where it's most associated.
Sand/beige: the SAS, and a genuinely great story
This is the one worth knowing properly. The sand-coloured beret was adopted by the Special Air Service to represent the desert where the Regiment was actually formed — North Africa, 1941, founded by David Stirling, drawing directly on the Long Range Desert Group's raiding tactics in that terrain. The SAS wore it from 1942 until 1944, when the Regiment returned to the UK and was folded into the Army Air Corps, forced to swap it for the airborne forces' maroon beret. When the SAS was re-raised in 1947, they were still in maroon. It wasn't until 1957 — during the Malayan conflict, using genuine surviving sand-coloured cloth from wartime veterans to match the original shade as closely as possible — that the SAS reclaimed their own beret for good. Paired with the "Winged Dagger" badge and the motto "Who Dares Wins," it's a colour that was fought for, quite literally, twice.
Black: the Royal Tank Regiment
The black beret was officially approved by King George V on 5 March 1924, and it's stuck with the Royal Tank Regiment ever since — for a wonderfully unglamorous practical reason: black doesn't show oil and grease stains from working with tank machinery nearly as badly as a lighter colour would.
Navy blue: the "corps blue" shared by several trades
Navy blue is the beret colour behind more of the Army's supporting corps than people expect — Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Corps of Signals and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) all wear a navy blue beret, distinguished from each other purely by cap badge rather than colour. If you only remember one thing from this section: navy blue on its own doesn't identify a specific corps the way maroon or sand does — you have to check the badge.
Genuine cap badges for several corps discussed here — backing colour is a separate detail worth checking too (see our badge backing guide).
Shop genuine beret badges →Scarlet: Royal Military Police
The Royal Military Police wear a scarlet beret — giving them their well-known nickname, "Redcaps," which has stuck for generations and is now used almost as often as the corps' actual name.
Cypress green: Intelligence Corps
The Intelligence Corps adopted its own shade of green — officially "cypress green" — in the mid-1970s, distinct from both the Commandos' green and The Rifles' rifle green described below. Three genuinely different greens exist in British service at once, which is exactly the kind of detail that trips up buyers trying to match a beret to a badge.
Rifle green: The Rifles
The Rifles wear their own rifle green — tying directly into the black-buttoned, deliberately non-reflective skirmishing tradition covered in our regimental quirks guide. It's a genuinely different shade from both Commando green and Intelligence Corps cypress green once you see them side by side.
Genuine Rifles green beret, 100% wool, with insignia — a different shade again from Commando green or Intelligence Corps cypress green.
Shop genuine Rifles berets →Navy: Royal Navy
The Royal Navy has its own navy beret too, worn alongside (not instead of) the more famous round sailor's cap — genuinely useful for working environments where the traditional cap isn't practical.
Genuine Royal Navy wool beret, MoD specification.
Shop genuine Royal Navy berets →Light blue: Army Air Corps
Light blue belongs specifically to the Army Air Corps — easy to mix up with RAF blue-grey at a glance, but a genuinely distinct, lighter shade and a completely different service.
UN blue
UN blue is worn specifically while serving on United Nations peacekeeping duties, regardless of the wearer's parent regiment — a beret colour that overrides the usual one for the duration of that specific role, then reverts once the posting ends.
Cadet forces: it depends what you're affiliated to
Army Cadet Force and CCF Army Section detachments wear the beret of whichever regiment or corps they're affiliated with locally — there's no single "cadet beret colour," it genuinely follows the same rules as the adult regiment. CCF Royal Marines sections are the one clear exception with their own distinct look: a blue beret carrying the bronzed Royal Marines badge on a red "tombstone"-shaped backing, paired with DPM trousers. Air Training Corps cadets wear the RAF's own blue-grey beret.
Why this matters if you're buying
Beret colour is one of the fastest ways to identify what a genuine piece of headwear actually represents — and, as this list hopefully makes clear, colour alone often isn't quite enough on its own (three greens, several navy blues) without checking the badge too. If you're building a specific look, match both the colour and the badge to the actual capability or unit, not just "a beret that looks about right."
Not sure which beret colour and badge combination is right for what you're going for? Email us at sales@jungleuk.com and we'll help.
The rest of the British Army — and the RAF
Maroon, green and sand get the attention because they mark selection courses. But most of the British Army and every RAF station is wearing a beret too, and those colours carry just as much regimental meaning. Here are the ones you are most likely to actually see.
Blue-grey: the Royal Air Force
The RAF's blue-grey is one of the most-worn berets in British service and one of the least discussed. The shade is deliberate: it is the same blue-grey that runs through the whole RAF uniform, chosen in 1919 to distinguish the new service from Army khaki and Navy blue.
Airmen and airwomen wear it with the RAF eagle badge on a black square backing. It is worn across every trade — ground crew, engineers, RAF Regiment gunners and aircrew alike — which is why so many of them exist.
RAF Beret Cap Genuine British Royal Air Force Issue Assorted Sizes
Shop genuine RAF blue-grey berets →
Dark navy blue: the Royal Navy itself
The Royal Navy beret is a deep, near-black navy. Ratings wear it with the RN cap badge, and it is standard working headdress afloat and ashore where a cap would be impractical.
Worth separating from the Army's “corps blue” above: that is a British Army colour worn by the Royal Artillery, Engineers, Signals and REME. This one is the Royal Navy's own, a different service entirely.
It is also easy to confuse with the Royal Tank Regiment's black at a glance. Side by side the difference is obvious — the Navy's is unmistakably blue, the RTR's is genuinely black.
Royal Navy Beret Genuine British Naval Berets 100% Wool
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Scarlet red: the Royal Military Police
The most instantly recognisable beret in the British Army, and the reason the RMP have been called "Redcaps" since the First World War. The colour is not decorative — it exists to be seen. A military policeman directing traffic, manning a checkpoint or moving through a crowd needs to be identified at distance, immediately.
Worn with the RMP cap badge. Ceremonial and dress versions turn up in slightly different shades of scarlet depending on the maker and the era.
Scarlet Red Beret Service Dress Hobson of London Mil-Spec Lined Wool Old Stock
Rifle green: The Rifles and Light Infantry
A darker, greyer green than the Commando beret — the traditional colour of Britain's rifle regiments, going back to when riflemen wore dark green rather than red so they could work as skirmishers without being seen.
Worn today by The Rifles, and before them by the Light Infantry and the Royal Green Jackets. The bugle-horn badge is the giveaway.
Light Infantry LI Rifle Green Wool Beret. Genuine British Issue Size 54cm - NE
Light blue: the Army Air Corps
A pale, distinctive blue that nothing else in the British Army uses. The Army Air Corps fly the Apache and Wildcat, and their beret is deliberately closer to sky blue than to the RAF's grey-tinted shade.
Worn with the AAC's eagle badge and the motto Nothing is Impossible.
AAC Blue Beret Goldings Army Pattern Wool / Silky Lining & Petersham Trim 62cm
Khaki green: general service
The plain khaki-green beret is the default across a large part of the Army — infantry regiments without a distinctive colour of their own, the Royal Logistic Corps, REME, the Royal Artillery in some orders of dress, and many others.
Here the badge does the identifying, not the beret. Two soldiers in the same khaki beret can be from completely different regiments; the cap badge and the backing behind it are what tell you which.
British Made Khaki Green General SD Issue Beret Cap Genuine Spec 58cm
Pale blue: United Nations service
Not a regimental colour at all — a duty one. British personnel deployed on UN peacekeeping operations swap their regimental beret for the UN's pale blue for the length of that deployment, with the UN badge in place of their own.
It is worn by soldiers from every regiment, which makes it one of the few berets that says nothing about where the wearer came from and everything about what they were doing.
UN Blue Beret United British Style Beret Cap- Size 51cm- NEW
Cypress green: the Intelligence Corps
A deep bottle green, easily mistaken for the Commando beret in a photograph but noticeably darker in person. The Intelligence Corps have worn it since 1940.
Rarely seen and rarely stocked — genuine issue examples come and go.
Intelligence Corps Uniform Green Wool Beret Genuine British Army Issue 52cm NE
Shop Intelligence Corps berets →
A note on shade
Beret colours are not standardised the way you might expect. A maroon beret made by Hobson in 1985 and one made today will not be an exact match. Wool dyes shift between batches, and decades of sunlight shift them further.
If you are matching a beret to something you already own — for a re-enactment group, a film production, or a set of medals in a frame — it is worth asking us before buying. We can usually tell you what a specific one looks like in daylight rather than under a photography lamp.
Which beret do I actually need?
- Wearing it with a regiment — the regiment decides, not you. Ask before you buy; the colour and the badge backing both matter.
- Cadets — your unit will specify. ATC and CCF(RAF) wear RAF blue-grey; Army sections vary by affiliated regiment.
- Re-enactment or film — get the period right. Old pattern berets with a petersham (fabric) rim look markedly different from modern leather-rimmed ones.
- Just want a wool beret — the plain general service colours are the sensible buy. No badge, no claim, no offence caused.
One thing worth saying plainly: a beret colour earned on a selection course belongs to the people who passed it. Wearing a maroon or green beret you have not earned is, at best, badly received. Buy them for collections, displays, productions and cadet use — and if you are entitled to one, you already know exactly which.