Collar Badge - Labour Corps / Pioneer Corps / Infantry Pioneer Battalions (Not confirmed) The Labour Corps officers wore the "General Service" royal arms in brass, upon their formation, Jan 1917, - October 1918, when their new badge was approved. Labour Corps raised in Feb 1915, disbanded in 1921. The 5th Bn Northamptonshire Regt and 1/8th Royal Scots [Pioneers] did wear the crossed Pick & Rifle Collar Badges,presumably other Battalions did too. The Labour Corps was formed in January 1917. The Corps grew to some 389,900 men (more than 10% of the total size of the Army) by the Armistice. Of this total, around 175,000 were working in the United Kingdom and the rest in the theatres of war. The Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the "A1" condition needed for front line service. Many were returned wounded. Labour Corps units were often deployed for work within range of the enemy guns, sometimes for lengthy periods. In April 1917, a number of infantry battalions were transferred to the Corps. The Labour Corps absorbed the 28 ASC Labour Companies between February and June 1917. Labour Corps Area Employment Companies were formed in 1917 for salvage work, absorbing the Divisional Salvage Companies. In the crises of March and April 1918 on the Western Front, Labour Corps units were used as emergency infantry. The Corps always suffered from its treatment as something of a second class organisation: for example, the men who died are commemorated under their original regiment, with Labour Corps being secondary. Researching men of the Corps is made extra difficult by his, as is the fact that few records remain of the daily activities and locations of Corps units.