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One of the foremost discrepancies within the Association lies in the Euryalus ship's crest. I believe that this matter has now been resolved in the research carried out by a shipmate who submits the result of his investigation for member's interest.
THE TWO CRESTS
There is a thought in the Association that there are two badges for HMS Euryalus - a pentagonal shape for the Cruiser, and a round shape for the Frigate. This does not, however, appear to be the case.
I did not like the inference of a difference between the cruiser and the frigate men and so I researched the subject to try and settle it once and for all. My enquiries show that there is no evidence to suggest that F15 ever had a round badge and it was certainly a pentagonal one when I was aboard her in 1964-66.
Admiralty Library records show that all of the badge master carvings and moulds of Euryalus are pentagonal and they have nothing to show that there was a change to circular. The round shaped Euryalus badge commonly seen in books published since 1976 is explained because that is how ALL ship's badges are now shown. A brief history of ship's badges explains how this came about.
Before 1918 ship's badges were, in the main, unofficial, and of differing shapes, sizes, and designs. In 1918 a Ships Badges Committee was formed in order to ensure that the badges on ships were suitable, appropriate and heraldically correct; an Admiralty1 Advisor on Heraldry was appointed to ensure this. In addition to approving the pictorial design of the badge, one of the first decisions of the Committee was to standardise the shape of the crest containing the badge design.
This was settled as:
| Click on a crest below to see a picture of the ship | |||||
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Circular
for Battleships, Battlecruisers |
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Pentagonal
for Cruisers |
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| HMS Warspite | HMS Hood | HMS Dido | HMS Devonshire | ||
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Shields
for Destroyers |
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Diamond
for all other types of ship |
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| HMS Comet | HMS Gurkha | HMS Ganges | HMS Otus | ||
| Copyright unknown... | |||||
However, during the years that followed, the shapes of badges became mixed and inconsistent on differing types of ship brought about by new ships of the same name taking the badge of their predecessors, albeit of a different type. This situation meant that there were small ships with big ship badges and vice versa. Even shore Establishments had Destroyer and cruiser shaped badges. This had been done in order that the master carvings and moulds would not have to be altered, plus the fact that there were a lot of valuable badges that had been held back awaiting passing on to a successor.
This situation prevailed until 1976 when the Ministry of Defence (Navy) decided that the shape of ships badges would again be standardised. The circular badge would now be used for all H. M. Ships and Submarines - the pentagon for Auxiliary (R.F.A., R.M.A.S., etc.) and the diamond for Shore Establishments.
However, permission was given for existing badge shapes in use to continue in those ships having already been issued with them. A good example of this was Leander Class Frigates, as many of which had old Cruiser shaped Badges.
Again to avoid the necessity of amending master carvings and moulds which would prove costly and time consuming and even unnecessary in the case of a ship earmarked for disposal in the near future. In the latter case the badge would be altered only if a new ship of the name came along at a later date.
Because of the 1976 ruling there may be in existence round shaped presentation plaques still available from various manufactures, but the shape of the crest is not important so long as the pictorial design is still the approved one.
So there you have it, shipmates, we are one Association with one badge - even though we served on two different types of ship.
Footnote: Incidentally, another oddity came to light during my research. There are some Euryalus ship's badges known to exist whereby the figure of the warrior is facing to the right, instead of the left. I have seen one in the Fusiliers Museum at Bury and we have one at the Warrington Sea Cadet Unit. I had always been puzzled by them, but discovered they were purpose made that way so that when displayed on the starboard side of the vessel, the warrior was still facing for'ard.
...obvious when you know!