Pouch badge, Madras Volunteer Guards, 1857-1901 (gilt)

Pouch badge, Madras Volunteer Guards, 1857-1901. Gilt badge with a crown over a circlet with the motto of the unit, ‘Ready Aye Ready’, encircling the unit’s initials, ‘MVG’. The Madras Guards was originally raised as a volunteer unit in Calcutta in 1857, following the outbreak of mutiny in the Bengal Army. The unit was presented with colours the next year and, by 1859, had been put on a proper financial footing. It remained the only volunteer unit in southern India until 1868. At the outbreak of World War Two (1939–1945) it formed part of the Auxiliary Force (India), which was intended primarily to assist the civil authorities in maintaining law and order. From the Field Marshal Sir John Chapple Indian Army Collection.