My first draft picked an additional colour that rotated through but it just caused confusion & made it harder to understand.
CCFs could have their own colours but some regions are trying to put them under wings & other regions are treating them as their own “wing”
I imagine the politics around duplication would probably mean a JL looking flash would be blocked even if JL is not realistically coming back.
I’ve ended up doing my bits above as a bit of pure procrastination - I think if I was to formally suggest it it would be to have as advisory in the book optional extra rather than a compulsory item we all have to fork out for.
I.e. if you want a wing/region patch then these are the ones you use but no public money is to be used to purchase them.
Then if they became popular then HQ can decide whether to fund them or not but it does stop a variety of uncontrolled random designs.
To a poster above, I would agree that the answer to units doing their own thing is not to look to authorise it for the sake of it. We see that enough with all the terrible looking unauthorised badges still being used on socials.
What I meant to convey earlier was that it can be a very clear indicator as to what staff and cadets value from an “esprit de corps” point of view. And in my view, that makes it worthy of discussion.
Nothing is universally popular, but identity patches are a very easy win for allowing people to tap into their sense of local pride etc.
It just needs governing properly and the standards maintaining.
The Media Operations one…oh, how I wish I could have something like this to indicate my role!!! (Somebody would definitely get upset over it though, alas…)
I’m to blame for that one, the none simplified one had the flag of mercia with the shield of East anglia on top, I looked at a map of the heptarchy, and thats how i landed on the C&E and North Ideas
Just for information (as I think this bit of lore is easily missed & may have disappeared with all the pauses)
For budgeting/scaling purposes JL is technically a “Wing” just part of HQAC rather than a region - so strictly speaking their “wing flash” is their current DZ
It’s tempting to me to add another column to mine for HQAC but I think I’ve taken my aspect as far as I can really before writing a formal business case with costings.
I like some of your ideas I think there perhaps needs to more similarity in designs between regions - perhaps three elements only?
I like the Mercian cross but it’s not really C&E - However whack a red dragon on it & you have your badge for Wales & West
If you are submitting your purposely formal it might be worth trying to use an AI like Co pilot or ChatGPT to model costings.
Until the last of the QJLs age out, we should let them wear their badge: they earned it.
I made the same point about CCF patches on the left arm — fine for someone who doesn’t have anything else, but don’t compel someone to remove a qualification they’ve worked hard for: especially not for the sake of arbitrary conformity.
Not to sound rude.. But I’ve just been looking at a map of the kingdom of mercia it’s mostly central England & the midlands. Am not seeing were Wales comes into it?
Not saying your wrong just more could you explain?
I think @Chief_Tech was referring to the West part of the region’s name rather than the Wales bit (which would be represented by the dragon he mentioned).
The western association is probably due to West Mercia Police, but I note the Mercian Regiment also recruits from counties in the East Midlands: such as Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
Arrr ok I understand now yeah it probably would. It’s one of them issues of Regions being so big that there’s not a lot you can do with around regions.
The other issue with more visual patches with physical elements or charges, which hasn’t come up since one of the earlier conversations I had on this subject, is that you then end up with two competing visual identities.
You have a legitimate badge, which has been granted on behalf of HM The King (or Queen) and exists precisely to create a coherent unit identity, and then you have something else which is trying to draw on similar meaning while creating an entirely separate visual identity.
I view this as being redundant in a way that actually undermines the legit unit badge.
Most formation patches you see in the wild have come from other organisations which work differently.
We don’t have “cap badges” and corresponding TRFs / stable belts in the same way the British Army do, and I think the structure works a bit differently too.
One thing I need to check on is whether their units have badges in the same way we do (outside of the regiments etc).
For example, I know the Cultural Property Protection Unit has a badge, but then they had a qualification patch and a formation patch for the parent unit they were placed under (Outreach Group, which didn’t have a unit badge in the same way our regions will).
What will need to take place, once we’re in a position to consider all of the options together, is ascertaining that we have a full understanding of how all this actually works so that we don’t end up cutting our own detail and making well-intentioned mistakes.
It’s important to remember that badges can’t actually be changed, which means that any RAF unit you’ve seen isolating the centrepiece of their badge for use on cummerbunds and sqn patches etc have not done so with due regard to the view of the inspectorate (and likely wouldn’t have known to ask).
That’s important when taking inspiration from elsewhere.
