Scouting Leader Hat Badges and Plumes.
Scouting adults would wear their hat plums as an indication to what type of leader they were, whether is was Scout Leader, Instructor, or commissioner plus many other roles. The were worn on the side of Lemon Squeeze hat or on a beret above the left eye. Here we will look at the different ones from the years
As leaders changed role they would sometimes just remove the
bristle from their plume and replace it with the one for their new role, Head
Quarters supplied bristle only for that purpose. It can therefore be very
difficult to establish whether a plume is original or not.
Leaders also made their own brush, using bristle from other
plumes this is best seen in the Gilwell plume where a district leader plume was
dyed with kingfisher blue fountain pen ink, stabilised, and dried.
Although plumes are said to be issued from 1908 we are yet
to find one with a 1908 assay mark.
Hat Plumes also had a couple of other names for them such as
Brushes or Hackles,
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