Cap badge, Kolar Gold Fields Rifle Volunteers, 1903-1917

White metal badge in the form of a monogram, 'KGFV', in elaborate script, surmounted by a King's Crown.

The Kolar Gold Fields was a region in the state of Mysore (modern day Karnataka) where the British company, John Taylor and Sons, ran a gold-mining operation. The Kolar Gold Fields Volunteers was an Auxiliary Force unit formed in 1903 from a detachment of the Bangalore Volunteer Rifles. It became the 43rd Kolar Gold Fields Battalion in 1917, and the Kolar Gold Fields Battalion, in 1920. The unit's badge of crossed pickaxe and hammer reflected its link to the gold-mining industry. The unit was disbanded in 1947.

From the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.