The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Machine woven cotton formation sign of 1 Infantry Brigade Group. The badge is a khaki square overlaid with a red shield. The shield contains, in gold, a pair of crossed sabres above a boomerang.
Introduced to the Australian Army in 1950, and adopted from British Army practice, formation signs were intended to be worn on each sleeve in conjunction with embroidered shoulder titles. This combination, which replaced the traditional Australian system of colour patches, enabled an observer to determine both the wearer's parent formation, and their corps or unit within that formation. The use of formation signs within Australia was discontinued in about 1960, with the introduction of the new, American based 'Pentropic' system of military organisation. Australian units serving overseas, however, continued to wear them for many years. A number of formation signs featured the King's (Tudor) crown. After the death of King George VI in February 1952, and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953, this was gradually replaced by the Queen's (Windsor) crown, most formation signs having been updated by the end of 1954. The 1st Infantry Brigade Group was an Australian Regular Army formation, comprising 1, 2 and 3 Battalions, the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) as well as attached armoured, artillery, engineer and Special Air Service (SAS) units. At any given time, the brigade would only have contained two infantry battalions, the third being committed on rotation to overseas operations in Korea or Malaya, where a different formation sign would have been worn.
Machine woven cotton formation sign of 7 Infantry Brigade. The badge, for wear on the right hand sleeve, is a khaki square overlaid with a red shield. Within the shield is a rampant griffin in gold an
Machine woven cotton formation sign of 7 Infantry Brigade. The badge, for wear on the left hand sleeve, is a khaki square overlaid with a red shield. Within the shield is a rampant griffin in gold and
Machine woven cotton formation sign of 11 Infantry Brigade. The badge is a scarlet square overlaid with an eleven pointed white star. Within the star are a pair of upward facing red arrows. Introduc
Machine woven cotton formation sign of 13 Infantry Brigade. The badge, for wear on the left arm, is designed in the style of an armourial crest, and consists of a blue square overlaid with green shie
Machine woven cotton formation sign of Australian Army Headquarters. The badge, for wear on the left hand sleeve, is a yellow square overlaid with a shield evenly divided horizontally, the upper half
Machine woven cotton formation sign of Australian Army Headquarters. The badge, for wear on the left hand sleeve, is a khaki square overlaid with a shield evenly divided horizontally, the upper half b
