Canadian Expeditionary Force Formation Insignia

The full story of the evolution of Canadian formation patches, or "battle patches" is given in Clive Law's book "Distinguishing Patches" available from Service Publications.¹  Briefly, however, by 1916 British and Canadian leadership recognized the difficulty of identifying friendly troops, especially when infantry battalions were on the attack.  While British units did have distinguishing cap badges, shoulder titles, and other "quiffs", Canadian soldiers presented a more homogenous appearance, with common CANADA shoulder titles, and for the most part cap and collar badges based on the maple leaf.  To that end, coloured badges were introduced, first intended to be worn on the back of the tunic, but later moved to the sleeves.  These patches were first worn by Canadian soldiers in the middle of 1916.  Towards the end of the war, many units took to painting the patches on steel helmets as a further aid to identification.

The images and descriptions below are based on a colour poster designed and printed by Service Publications. 

1st Canadian Division

2nd Canadian Division

Artifacts and images courtesy of Bill Alexander. Click to enlarge.

3rd Canadian Division

 

Divisional patches for the Third Division were originally white in colour, then changed to black and finally to French-Grey.

Artifacts and images courtesy of Bill Alexander. Click to enlarge.

4th Canadian Division

Artifacts and images courtesy of Bill Alexander. Click to enlarge.

5th Canadian Division

Siberian Expeditionary Force

Canadian Cavalry Brigade

Line of Communication and Corps Troops, C.E.F.

Artifacts and images courtesy of Bill Alexander. Click to enlarge.

Notes

1. Law, Clive M. Distinguishing Patches: Formation Patches of the Canadian Army (2nd Ed.) Service Publications, Ottawa, ON, 2008 ISBN 978-1-894581-50-9