Cap Badge - Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI). The original badge featured the marguarite flower and the King's (Tudor) crown. During the Great War there were at least nine versions of the badge made in Canada and Great Britain. Note: See Volume 4 of Brooker's Badge Book for more details. Attached are 6 electronic books on the PPCLI in WW I. At the outbreak of World War I, when Canada was lacking regular military forces, the then-Captain Andrew Hamilton Gault raised the Patricias. Hamilton Gault offered $100,000 (around 2 million in 2006 Canadian Dollars) to finance and equip a battalion in order to participate in the Canadian war effort overseas. The government temporarily accepted his offer on August 6, 1914, and officially authorized it on August 10, 1914. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis D. Farquhar, DSO was instrumental in assisting Hamilton Gault in founding the regiment. Colonel Farquhar, Military Secretary to Canada's Governor-General, asked the Duke of Connaught for permission to name the regiment after his daughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught. She was pleased to accept this honour and thus the Princess Patricia's were established. The name Light Infantry in the battalion name was chosen by Captain Gault, who served during the Second Boer War and liked the impression of an irregular force that the name inspired. Farquhar and Gault moved expeditiously to mobilize the regiment. The day after authority was granted, August 11, 1914, the two men began an aggressive recruitment campaign. Due to the patriotic outpouring following the August, 4 declaration of war, some 3,000 applicants were recruited within eight days. By August, 19 a full complement of 1,098 had been selected, of those, 1,049 had previously served in South Africa or in the British Army. Lieutenant-Colonel Farquhar became the first commander of the battalion. The regiment's first formal parade was conducted on August, 23 in Ottawa during which Princess Patricia presented the regimental standard. This flag was carried in every regimental action during World War I. It was not officially adopted as a regimental colour and consecrated as such until after the First World War. Upon arrival in England on October, 18 the regiment was first stationed at Bustard Camp on Salisbury Plain. On November, 16 the unit joined the 80th Brigade of the British Expeditionary Force at Winchester. The Patricias first took their place in the trenches on January 6, 1915, at a location known to the British Army's soldiers as "Dickiebush". On May, 8 the stout defence of Bellewaerde Ridge during the Battle of Frezenberg established the reputation of the Patricias but at tremendous cost. When they came out of the line they had lost 500 men in three days. The tattered remains were commanded by a lieutenant, all other officers having been killed or wounded. The PPCLI served for a year with the 80th Brigade before joining the new 7th Brigade within the 3rd Canadian Division on December 22, 1915. In 1916 the regiment fought major battles at Mount Sorrel and on the Somme. It was not until October 1916 that the first Canadian, Lt Col Agar Adamson, was appointed to command the regiment. In 1917 as part of the Canadian Corps, the regiment took part in the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 9, 1917, and Passchendaele later the same year. In 1918 the regiment fought at Amiens, Jigsaw Wood and Canal du Nord as part of the great battles of the Hundred Days that ended the war. The 4th Company, PPCLI, entered Mons with other Canadian troops early on November 11, 1918, before the armistice took effect at 11 AM.