The Glosters and the Back Badge: The Only Regiment That Wore Two

October 6, 2026

Of all the distinctions in the British Army, the Gloucestershire Regiment's is the most literally unique: a second cap badge, worn on the back of the headdress. No other British regiment has ever had one, and it was awarded for a specific action.

Why a badge on the back

The traditional account places it at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801, where the regiment found itself attacked from front and rear simultaneously. The rear rank turned about to face the attack behind while the front rank held its ground, and the regiment fought back to back.

The back badge commemorates that, and it is worn to this day by successor units. It is one of the very few British military distinctions that everyone can immediately understand the reason for — there is no heraldic layer to decode, just a badge on the back of the head because they once had to fight in both directions.

The Imjin River

The regiment's other great association is with Korea, and the action at the Imjin River in 1951 where the Glosters, heavily outnumbered, held their position for several days.

It produced the nickname "the Glorious Glosters", and it is one of the best-known British actions of the twentieth century. For collectors it also means that Gloucestershire material carries a weight of association that most county regiment insignia does not.

The lineage, and where the badges go

The Gloucestershire Regiment was amalgamated in the 1990s into a combined Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire regiment, and that in turn was absorbed into The Rifles in 2007.

So the collecting field runs through several layers:

Gloucestershire Regiment material — the classic period, with the back badge.
The combined 1990s regiment — a short-lived name, which makes its insignia scarcer than either side of it.
The Rifles — where the tradition now sits, with the back badge distinction carried forward.

That short-lived middle period is worth watching for. Regiments that existed for only a decade or so produced far less insignia than their predecessors or successors, and the material is consistently underpriced because sellers do not realise how brief the window was.

Buying back badges

The back badge is smaller than the cap badge and is a distinct item. Points to check:

It is not simply a small cap badge. The design is its own, and a small front badge sold as a back badge is a straightforward misdescription.
Fixings differ because it mounts differently.
Pairs are the thing. A front and back badge together, from the same period and in matching condition, is worth considerably more than the two separately.
Reproductions exist, because the badge is famous and desirable. Judge on strike quality and the reverse, as with any badge.

Why it is a good regiment to collect

It has everything: a genuinely unique distinction, a famous modern action, a long county history, a clean set of amalgamation dates, and a nickname everyone recognises. And because the county regiments produced insignia over a very long period, the common material is affordable while the interesting material is findable.

What the Glosters actually did at the Imjin

In April 1951 the battalion held a position on the Imjin River in Korea against a very much larger force, and kept holding it after being surrounded and cut off from resupply. The position was held for several days before the survivors were finally overrun or forced to break out, and a large proportion of the battalion was killed or taken prisoner.

The action bought time for the wider front, which was the point of it, and it entered British military memory as one of the defining small-unit stands of the twentieth century. It is why "Glorious Glosters" is not an ironic nickname.

Korea and the surplus market

Korean War era British material is a distinct and under-collected area. It sits awkwardly between the enormous volume of Second World War material and the plentiful post-1960s kit, and it is often misidentified as one or the other.

Points worth knowing: the clothing and equipment of the period is largely a continuation of late-war patterns rather than anything new, so items are usually dated rather than obviously distinct. That makes stamped dates far more important than appearance when identifying Korea-period British kit.

Collecting the back badge properly

If you want to represent the distinction properly on a display, you need both badges from the same period and in matching condition. That is harder than it sounds, because they were separated the moment the headdress was disposed of and they circulate independently.

Buy the back badge first when you see one - it is the scarcer of the two - and match a front badge to it afterwards. Doing it the other way round means waiting for the harder item while holding the easy one.