BERET AND BADGE

8th/13th Armoured Regiment, the title soon changed to 8/13 Victorian Mounted Rifles, was raised 1 May 1948. The Commanding Officer was Lieutenant Colonel C T (Tom) Fogarty and the Squadron Commander A Squadron was Captain N G (Norm) Whitehead MC.

First headdress of 8th.13th Victorian Mounted Rifles Regiment with silver Rising Sun badge.

Being Armoured Corps, the regiment wore a black beret with a chromed Rising Sun as its hat badge. The Rising Sun was replaced by a silver regimental badge c1952. This badge was modelled on the badge of the 20th Light Horse Regiment having the motto Pro Rege et Patria (For King and Country). The scroll below the crest was reworked from ‘20th Aust Light Horse VMR’ to ‘Victorian Mounted Rifles’.

Silver had badge of the 8th/13th Victorian Mounted Rifles Regiment which replaced the silver Rising Sun c.1952.

The black beret has a long history as a headdress for armoured troops, especially tank troops. The Royal Tank Corps received approval for its use from King George V on 5 March 1924. The Tank Corps had adopted it from the French 70th Chasseurs Alpins after noting its practicality in not showing oil stains which were part and parcel of work in tanks.

The black beret was adopted by the embryonic Australian Tank Corps in 1930 after two years of battling with the slouch hat in tanks. The three AIF divisional cavalry regiments, 6th, 7th and 9th all wore black berets, but when the Australian Armoured Division was raised it opted for a khaki beret. The black beret became the headgear of choice for CMF Armoured Corps regiments raised in 1948 with in some cases a tuft of emu plumes behind the hat badge.