Shako plate, other ranks, 1st West India Regiment, Pattern 1829-1839

Brass badge in the form of an eight-pointed, rayed star surmounted by a monarchial crown, with a superimposed plain circlet within which is the numeral, '1', above a scroll bearing the title, 'West India Regt'. The whole surmounted by a monarchial crown.

The West India Regiment was an infantry unit of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the Caribbean colonies. Between 1795 and 1888 there were between one and 12 West India Regiments. From 1888 there was one regiment of two battalions. The Regiment served in West Africa during the second half of the nineteenth century and in the Middle East during World War One. The two battalions were amalgamated into a single battalion in 1920. This was disbanded in 1927. The Regiment was briefly revived in 1958 during the short-lived Federation of the West Indies, but finally abandoned in 1962.