CEF Forage Cap - CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force), with CEF maple leaf badge (Curator Colin Stevens replaced CEF badge with Imperial Seaforth badge. Photos show 231st Battalion CEF with both the CEF Canada General Service badge and the Imperial Seaforth badge. See attached the photos (2017.108.001 and 2017.108.002) from the return of the 231st Battalion, CEF from training in Sidney on 1 November 1916. Forage cap is the designation given to various types of military undress, fatigue or working headdresses. In the British Army, forage caps were first regulated by the War Office in 1811 as a practical head dress that could be worn when out of action, in lieu of the cumbersome Shako that was otherwise stipulated when in full regimental dress. There is however evidence that they were worn before this date under regimental arrangements and they are specifically mentioned as early as 1768. In 1902 a new style of forage cap was introduced and named after the then Secretary of State for War, St John Brodrick. The 'Brodrick cap' took the form of a stiffened and round shaped forage cap with no peak that was not dissimilar in appearance to a sailor's hat, although it was dark blue in colour and had a patch of facing colour cloth behind the regimental badge, which was worn centrally at the front. In 1905 the 'Brodrick cap' which had a stiffened and round shaped forage cap with no peak that was similar to a sailor's hat was replaced by a broad topped cap with wired brim and leather peak, based on the pattern worn in the Royal Navy, which was introduced as a "forage cap" for off-duty 'walking out' and other semi-formal occasions.