King’s Colonials, Edwardian brass 26mm Yeomanry button

A good example of a trooper’s brass button of 26mm size. The King’s Colonials button has no backmark but is the little seen early pattern which changed in 1910 when the yeomanry regiment was renamed King Edward’s Horse. The regiment had been formed as the 4th County of London Imperial Yeomanry in 1901 but its title changed in 1905 to The King’s Colonials, Imperial Yeomanry. The buttons are not easy to find, partly because it was so short lived under this title. The regiment was unique in a number of ways. Unlike all the county yeomanry regiments it was formed from men resident in the UK, mainly in London, who had come from the far flung areas of the Empire. It was the only colonial unit administered from Whitehall.  sep1/2