The Globe and Buster

Some years ago my wife's sister and family moved into a house near Exeter and this was found fixed to a beam. It is as you may know, the badge of the Royal Marines and officially called the Globe and Laural. This was no normal cap badge, it is about 6 inches high and made out of solid brass about three quarters of an inch thick and fairly roughly cast. Normally it would also contain the motto Per Mare Per Terram along the bottom. It was later passed on to me.

The American Marines also wear a similar cap badge containing a globe yet one that shows the opposite side of the world to the Royal Marines cap badge. They were in fact formed after the battle of Bunkers Hill during the American wars of Independence in which the Royal Marines took part. A nickname for a Royal Marine, among others, is a Bootneck and the American Marines are sometimes called "Leather necks". In the case of the Royal Marines, the story goes, in years gone by, they wore uniforms with very coarse collars and used to cut the tongues from their boots and sewed it inside their tunics to stopping them rubbing.

It now sits in my shed and I often pick it up and wonder by who and for what this was made. Perhaps he was a Royal Marine in some foreign land to pass the lonely hours of the middle watch or by one who never came home. I suspect we will never know.