Cap badge, Auxiliary Force (India) Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles Cap Badge, 1904-1947 (c)

White metal badge in the form of a right facing bugle horn with knotted cord over the unit initials, 'SPMR', for the Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles.

The Auxiliary Force (India) (AFI) was a part-time, paid volunteer organisation within the Indian Army in British India. Its units were entirely made up of European and Anglo-Indian personnel. It was created by the Auxiliary Force Act 1920 to replace the unpopular British section of the Indian Defence Force, which had recruited by conscription in 1917, during World War One, in order to release regular troops from garrison duties and help fight the war in Europe.

It was divided into British and Indian sections. Like the Indian Army of the time, units in the Indian section consisted primarily of British officers and Indian other ranks. Units in the British section were all British. The Indians were volunteers but many of the Europeans were conscripted, as the Indian Defence Force Act 1917 made military service compulsory for all Europeans permanently residing in British India (including the princely states) between the ages of 16 and 50, with only the clergy being exempt. By contrast, the AFI was an all-volunteer force modelled after the British Territorial Army.

From the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.