Anyone recognize this cap badge?

[MacKee]

Not the clan but the maker

[Jock Scot]

Sorry no I can't, but it is quite effective.

[OC Richard]

Does it say BYDAND? That would make it Gordon.

I've seen those before. They're a bit odd, sort of halfway between a military Gordon Highlanders badge and a civilian clan crest badge. Perhaps they were used by a Territorial unit related to the Gordon Highlanders.

Sometimes there are odd badges, like the cap badge of the 5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders which looks nothing like a Seaforth Highlanders badge. All the other battalions wore the normal Seaforth badge.

[Lachlan09]

The 5th Seaforths (the Caithness & Sutherland Batt) wore the Sutherland Wild cat and "Sans Peur" motto.

In 1881, the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders lost their county when merging with the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders and instead Sutherland went to the Seaforths but kept their Clan (and county of) Sutherland identity.

The A&SH also adopted the Sans Peur Cat and motto as part of their new identity.

[MacKee]

Hah, I see it now - Gordon Highlanders and a regular clan crest combo.

[thescot]

It's a badge from a reserve batallion of the Gordons.

I bought one years ago, and it looks pretty much like a Gordon cap badge would, but it's solid.

I'll post more later.

[thescot]

P. S. I think they call it the Territorial Army.

[Lachlan09]

It may be a modern re-strike of a late 19th Century volunteer battalion connected to the Gordons, but personally, I don’t recall ever seeing that particular badge as a Gordons regimental or volunteer badge, not even in Wilkinson-Latham’s excellent 1971 book on historical (and often obscure) Scottish military badges.

I also don’t recall the TF battalions of 1908-22 wearing it or the follow-on TA and TAVR. I don’t believe it is a regimental badge of one of the historical Scottish Gordons battalions, though perhaps it could be from another country.

The only “solid”, rather than hollow, badge worn post-1881 by a Scottish regiment that I’m aware of was that of the Argylls between 1881 and 1908 (or thereabouts).

[Lachlan09]

The only 20th Century Scottish units to wear a clan badge within a belt of which I’m aware were the 5th Seaforths (later 4/5 Seaforths) and the Lovats.

[creagdhubh]

Clan Gordon, judging by the crest (stag's head) and motto (Bydand). Remember, the Gordons were a clan along with a regiment, being raised by the Duke and Duchess of Gordon. The Duke of Gordon (peerage which has been long extinct) held a stronghold in Badenoch, traditional lands of the Macphersons.