Metal Badge of Rank - Crowns

In the 17th and 18th centuries, British officers' ranks were denoted by the amount of lace or other decoration on the dress, and although the crossed sword and baton device of general officers was already in use in 1800, the different grades of general were only distinguished by the grouping of the buttons on their coats until the Crimean War. Badges for field officers (using crowns and stars) were first introduced in 1810, and for captains and subaltern officers in 1855. The badges were then worn on the collar, but were moved to the shoulder cords in 1880 for all officers in full dress, when the system of crowns and pips was reorganised. Though the physical St Edward's Crown is property of the Queen in Right of the United Kingdom, its two-dimensional representation has come to be utilised throughout all the Commonwealth as an indication of each country's respective royal authority, thus appearing on coats of arms, badges for military, police units, cadet forces and logos for government departments and private organizations with royal associations. In this use, it was has been and still used in the military rank of Major and used in the police forces in some of their officers’ ranks. 

St. Edward’s Crown replaced the Tudor Crown or the King’s Imperial Crown by the command in 1953 of Queen Elizabeth II.Such use of the crown is only by the personal permission of the sovereign. The Tudor Crown arches were not being dipped in the centre as the St. Edward’s Crown. The Tudor Crown was used to as the major’s insignia from 1910 to up to 1953. Point to note, the warrant officer class II crown was the same insignia as the major’s insignia. However, the warrant’s crown was the smaller version to it. Many, though not all, of the derived designs around the world were updated to match. Today both the major and the warrant officer’s crown is the St. Edward’s Crown. The Major’s crown is worn on both epaulettes of all uniforms except the Ceremonial Dress. The crown is worn on both shoulder boards of the Ceremonial Dress.

Since the Caribbean cadet forces adopted the British Army system we also changed insignia crown. Active Gear has a wide range of Major’s crowns to choose from. The metal and embroidered crowns are all sold in pairs. The metal crowns we have feature double shank and split pin fitting and butterfly pin back that hold the crowns in place while on parade or elsewhere.  Some of our metal crowns come with crimson velvet cushion or backing. The crowns for the Number One Dress features a gold and silver burnished finish with wire fitting on the reverse for easy fitting to the shoulder boards of the uniform.