RCR badges on a soldier's belt; 1st Hussars Museum, London ON

[Michael OLeary]

I had the opportunity to walk through the small museum maintain by the 1st Hussars the other day. In the gallery dedicated to the First World War was a soldiers belt decorated with collected badges and buttons.  These belts are sometimes referred to as "hate belts", but that seems to be a much later label and mostly applicable to those that were decorated with the enemy's badges.

Although this belt was attributed to the First World War, and the owner possibly served in that conflict, two of the three RCR badges that were mounted on the belt are en-cyphered for King Edward VII and therefore come from an earlier period: 1901-1911.

[bjmaclean]

Mike
I've never heard of the Hate Belts, could you enlighten me
.
Thanks
BJ

[Michael OLeary]

Soldiers would collect badges, buttons, etc., and use them to decorate a belt as the one pictured above. The decorative articles might be of enemy badges, supposedly taken on the battlefield, or of friendly units as in this example.  At some point, the term "hate belt" was applied and I have seen this used in collecting forums, though without any solid evidence of when it started.  I suspect the term came from someone seeing belts with enemy badges on them and presumed it was a virtual record of the units a the soldier had fought against and taken his "trophies" from in battle.  Some of the examples I have seen include, or are limited to, friendly force badges, so the term can be completely inaccurate for many examples.

See also:

'Hate belt' with German buckle and assorted badges and buttons

WW1 "Hate Belt"

[bjmaclean]

Thanks Mike