The Royal Tank Regiment: The First Black Beret in the British Army

October 4, 2026

Every beret in the British Army — maroon, green, sand, khaki, blue — descends from a decision made by the Royal Tank Regiment's predecessors in the 1920s. They were the first, and the reason was entirely practical.

Why a beret, and why black

Early tank crews worked in cramped, filthy, oil-soaked conditions. Peaked caps were hopeless: too bulky for a turret, constantly knocked off, and impossible to keep clean. What was needed was headwear that stayed on, took up no room, and did not show oil.

The beret answered all three, and black answered the last one particularly well. A black beret in an environment of oil, grease and exhaust looks serviceable far longer than any other colour would.

It worked so well that the rest of the Army eventually adopted the beret in other colours, which is why a decision about tank maintenance in the 1920s ended up defining the appearance of the entire British Army.

The badge

The RTR cap badge shows a tank within a laurel wreath beneath a crown, with the motto below. The tank depicted is an early one — a First World War rhomboid rather than anything modern — which is a deliberate reference to the regiment's origins in the first use of tanks in warfare.

Like the Royal Artillery's gun, it is unusual in British heraldry for depicting an actual machine rather than a symbolic device, and for the same reason: the machine is the entire point of the regiment.

Fear Naught

The motto is Fear Naught, which is about as direct as British military mottoes get. No Latin, no ambiguity.

Where the regiment came from

The lineage runs back to the tank units formed during the First World War, through the Tank Corps and the Royal Tank Corps, to the Royal Tank Regiment. It is a short history by British Army standards but an unusually significant one, because it covers the introduction of a weapon that changed land warfare completely.

For collectors, the early period is the interesting one and, inevitably, the expensive one. Material connected to the earliest tank units is scarce and sought-after.

Black beret, and who else wears one

This is worth knowing, because it affects identification. The black beret became associated with armoured units generally rather than the RTR alone, so a black beret does not by itself mean Royal Tank Regiment.

As always, the badge identifies the unit and the beret identifies the broad category. Buy the two together where you can.

Collecting RTR material

The tank design dates the badge. As with the Gunners' gun, the depiction has varied, and the variations are datable.
Early Tank Corps material is a different market from modern RTR insignia — scarcer, older and considerably more expensive.
Look for regimental and squadron markings. Armoured units use distinctive markings and insignia below regimental level, and these are far less commonly recognised.
Check the crown, as ever.
Coveralls and crew clothing are a related collecting area. Tank crew clothing is functionally distinct from infantry clothing and is often listed generically by sellers who do not know what they have.

Why it makes a good focused collection

The RTR offers something unusual: a regiment whose entire history sits within the age of photography, whose equipment is well documented, and whose insignia is visually distinctive and easy to recognise. You can build a collection that tells the story of armoured warfare from 1916 to the present without ever straying outside one cap badge.

Why tank crews needed different clothing entirely

The beret was only the most visible part of a wider problem. Working inside an armoured vehicle imposes requirements that infantry clothing does not meet, and the differences are worth recognising when you see the clothing:

Nothing that catches. Loose pockets, flaps and equipment snag on hatches and internal fittings, which is dangerous in a vehicle where things move.
Fire resistance matters more. A vehicle full of fuel and ammunition is not somewhere to be wearing something that melts.
One-piece coveralls solve several problems at once and are strongly associated with armoured crews.
Headwear that works with a headset, since crews communicate by intercom rather than by shouting.

Tank crew clothing is frequently listed generically as "overalls" or "coveralls" by sellers who do not recognise what it is, which occasionally works in a buyer's favour.

Regimental and squadron markings

Armoured regiments use a visual identification system that infantry does not, with markings applied to vehicles as well as to people. Squadron markings, regimental signs and formation devices all form part of it, and the insignia associated with them is a distinct and less-collected area.

Anything marked below regimental level — to a squadron, a troop, a specific formation — is scarcer than a corps badge and usually costs no more, because the significance is not obvious to a general seller.

A short history that is well documented

One practical advantage of collecting a twentieth-century regiment: the photographic and documentary record is extensive. Unlike a regiment whose early history has to be reconstructed from fragments, almost everything the RTR and its predecessors did was photographed, filmed and written about at the time.

That makes identification and dating far easier than for older regiments, and it means an item can often be placed in a specific context rather than merely a period.