Cap badge : Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding), British Army

Cap badge of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) of the British Army. The badge consists of the crest and motto of the Duke of Wellington above a scroll inscribed 'THE WEST RIDING'. The crest and motto are in white metal scoll has been cast in yellowed metal. The motto reads 'VIRTUTIS FORTUNA COMES' which translates to 'Fortune favours the brave'. The reverse of the badge has a vertical metal slider for wearing on a cap or hat.

This distinctive hat badge is of the type worn on the caps and hats of those soldiers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Officers of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) of the British Army during the First World War. Many English Regiment badges traditionally feature Latin mottos. This hat badge for the West Riding Regiment features an example of this. It features the latin phrase 'VIRTUTIS FORTUNA COMES' which translates to 'Fortune favours the brave'.

This well known Regiment was originally formed in the West Yorkshire area of Northern England in 1702 and was absorbed with two other old British Regiments to form the Yorkshire Regiment in June 2006.

During its long and proud existance, the Regiment often known as 'the Dukes' served alongside Australian forces in several conflicts. The first was in the Boer War with various Australian colonial and Commonwealth units and later during the First World War at Gallipoli and on the Western Front.

They later served alongside the Australians in Korea. The Dukes held the strategically important feature named 'the Hook' in May 1953. Over the course of 10 days, the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army bombarded the position, firing an estimated 20,000 rounds of artillery into the feature. On 28 and 29 May the Chinese attacked in force, over-running part of the feature before a counter-attack drove them out. The Dukes lost 15 killed, 32 missing and 95 wounded in the battle, but held the position. The Chinese lost an estimated 1050 killed, and 800 wounded.

This particular badge was collected and placed onto a wide belt by the original owner. This type of collecting was popular amongst soldiers during the First World War when they would buy or swap badges with other soldiers from different units, Corps and Armies. This belt with its diverse range of badges is representative of the broad cross section of Allied forces which the AIF served alongside during the First World War.