Greg, I stand - or at any rate sit - corrected. Ta.

On the subject of the cockade, rosette, ribbon, sprig of vegetation, feather, vegetable, bit of old tat etc etc etc that was worn as a distinguishing mark - Wilfried and all the others are spot on. In the days when the troops were any old mob of peasants dragged along by the local gentry, some form of identification was absolutely necessary. Hence the first need for a bunch of ribbons etc etc. which usually reflected some part of the insignia or heraldic coat of arms of the twit up front on the horse. the trained men-at-arms would already wear some family badge to show who they belonged to, so it would be natural to use the same colours or the same badge in a simpler form. Probably the best known example of this type of general marking would be the cross worn by crusaders.

When permanent units of a standing army were formed, clothing was issued, and the most commonly available products used. Hence, or so I believe, the red coat of the British army, because trade and colonisation in the West indies had produced a large cheap quantity of "madder" dye. Although equipment was generally standardised, the colonel raising the regiment under the royal commission was paid to dress the troops and had a pretty free hand in the way of other markings, so to prevent confusion between regiments, it was usual to display "facings", cuffs, collars etc of different colours or have different buttoning patterns. I think the royal French armies up to the mid 18th century used the number of buttons on the pockets to differentiate between regiments, on otherwise plain light grey/white coats. Must have been interesting....

Colour parties would carry the regimental standard as well as the royal or national standard. The regimental colour was really a kind of continuation of the earlier twit on the horse's personal banner, and the royal colour indicated that your lot were officiallly part of the army. Together these showed everybody who your mob were, and who you belonged to, so that, hopefully, you would not be used for target practice by your mates in the smoke of battle. A symbol from the regimental colour would normally be displayed on the cap-badge, and maybe on the coat collar.

The use of another badge would then seem to be superfluous, but the British army has always made the idea of uniformity when applied to uniforms almost laughable. Troops would pick a sprig of leaves, or a chicken feather to unofficially mark themselves as being something special, and this would be associated with the action fought at the time. Next thing you know, the chicken feather has become a hackle and part of the officially approved dress, and so on...

The use of a cockade as an item to mark a special occassion such as the death of the monarch is just another pint of bat's blood in the brew as far as identifying regular regiments are concerned.

Anyway, thanks for reading so far... Guess what one of my interests is?

Looking forward to a thread on regimental or battle songs.