Australia: Military Colour Patches

	Colour Patches of the Military Forces of Australia, NZ and Canada

	An Associate site in the Digger History group, a military history of Australia & New Zealand

Colour Patches of the Military Forces of Australia

This colour patch is of my father's WW1 AIF Battalion, the 42nd

Initially let's put a few myths to bed, forever.

The Australian colour patch system is NOT unique.
- The Canadians and the New Zealanders used a similar but less complex system and other Empire and Commonwealth units also used patches on a smaller scale. See below
The Australian Army did not invent the colour patch system.
- We borrowed it from the Brits. We made it bigger, better and more wide ranging, but we didn't invent it.

Sub category index

Purists should note that it is nigh on impossible to recreate precise colour matches on the World Wide Web. Part of the difficulty is that each video monitor has it's own colour settings that are adjustable. I try to get the colours correct on my machine and hope that they appear OK on yours.

Much of the Australian detail on this site is as a result of the work done by Keith Glyde and published in his book "Distinguishing Colour Patches of the Australian Military Forces 1915-1951.

I commend the book to you.

It is ISBN 0-6460-36640-8

It is available from Warbooks Australia Online and other good bookstores.

In August of 2004 the price was $70.00 all inclusive.

In the beginning (The Boer War)

During the 2nd Anglo-Boer War (The Boer War as it is known to Australians) some British Units took to placing small pieces of tartan or coloured cloth on the puggaree of their helmets to identify their unit.

We should remember that this was the first war fought mostly in khaki and the units were for the first time difficult to tell apart. Gone were the flashy and fancy easily identified regimental uniforms and some soldiers or commanders

obviously felt the need for an identifying symbol other than the unit badge. The helmet shown above is an example. It is unidentified but as A Battery NSW Regiment Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery is reputed to have worn a "colour patch" of red and blue it is faintly possible that this belonged to an Australian gunner. It is more likely to be British.

Early in the Great War

General Bridges is credited with starting the move to a colour patch system by introducing unit and sub-unit marker flags for the 1st Division (5 September 1914). They were intended for use in the camp lines and transport areas as well as at HQ areas to identify the various different groups and their field of expertise.

Each flag was to be 9 inches (228mm) square. Colours were

1st Infantry Brigade		Green
2nd Infantry Brigade		Red
3rd Infantry Brigade		Light blue

Infantry Battalions were to have their signs divided horizontally with the lower half to be the colour of the Brigade to which they belonged and with the upper half to be

	black for the first Battalion in that Brigade
	yellow for the second battalion in that Brigade
	brown for the third Battalion in that Brigade
.	white for the fourth Battalion in that Brigade.

Divisional Artillery was to have dark blue with a numeral to identify the Brigade
Field Engineer Companies used khaki with a numeral
Divisional Signals used purple
Field Ambulances had chocolate as a colour with a white numeral
The Divisional Train was allotted dark blue over white with a horizontal divide
The Divisional Light Horse was given the use of white over red divided obliquely

The 1st Light Horse Brigade was allotted an obliquely divided flag

White was the base colour

	Brigade HQ used red
	1st Lt Horse Regiment used light blue
	2nd Light Horse Regiment used green
	3rd Light Horse Regiment used black
	1 Signal Troop Australian Engineers used purple
	5 Coy Aust Army Service Corps used dark blue
	1st LH Field Ambulance used chocolate

The Unit just formed, the 4th Infantry Brigade, was allotted a similar system with dark blue as the base colour. The 13th Battalion had it's black battalion colour changed to light blue when it arrived in Egypt.

On the 16 March 1915 each unit was instructed to cease the use of yellow and to replace it with purple. Whether this was done because of a shortage of material (as claimed) or because of the connotation of yellow with cowardice has never been resolved.

Introduction and early use of patches on the uniform


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Much of the Australian material on this site is drawn from "Distinguishing Colour Patches of the Australian Military Forces 1915-1951" by Keith Glyde. ISBN 0-6460-36640-8