page_title: Gorget patches
section_title: United Kingdom
hierarchical_section_title: Gorget patches / Countries / United Kingdom
caption_attribution_description: English: General Sir Bernard Montgomery in England, 1943
context_page_description: Gorget patches are an insignia, paired patches of cloth or metal on the collar of the uniform, that is used in the military and civil service in some countries. Collar tabs sign the military rank, the rank of civil service, the military unit, the office or the branch of the armed forces and the arm of service.
context_section_description: In the United Kingdom, general officers or senior staff officers of the British Army wear gorget patches according to their branch or arm of service; their counterpart police ranks wear similar gorget patches of silver-on-black (gold-on-black in the City of London Police). Officer cadets in the Merchant Navy, Army and the Royal Air Force also wear patches.
  Introduced for British Army staff officers in India in 1887, the patches subsequently proliferated. Different colours were introduced to indicate the branch of service and by 1940 one finds: 
  bright blue (engineers)
  dark blue (ordnance)
  pale blue (education)
  scarlet (general staff duties)
  cherry (medical)
  maroon (veterinary)
  purple (chaplains)
  green (dental)
  yellow (accountants)
  During World War I all staff officers from second lieutenants upwards wore gorget patches and hatbands of these colours, making them conspicuous in the trenches and leading to the nickname of "the gilded staff".  From 1921 coloured collar patches were restricted to full colonels on the staff and above.
caption: General Sir Bernard Montgomery wearing scarlet collar patches on his battledress tunic
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