The badge was meant to be a flaming ‘Excalibur’ - recalling the Lewes bomb that contained both plastic explosive and inflammable thermite with time pencils. I knew that, but most of us called the stylised badge a ‘winged dagger’ and it made a better title for a book than ‘Flaming Sword’ ‘Who Dares Wins’ etc. the sword looks more like a commando knife and was certainly not meant to be a ‘Sword of Damocles’.
Roy Farran, ‘Winged Dagger’ (1948)
The badge of the Special Air Service was created by Corporal Bob Tait in October 1941, who would survive the war and die in retirement in 1975.
Robert ‘Bob’ Duncan Tait was a founding member of ‘L Detachment’, later the SAS, and is credited with the design of the most coveted military badge in the world: the SAS winged dagger. Tait was part of 11 Commando before he was invited to join L Detachment under the direction of Col. Stirling while fighting in North Africa in World War Two.
He survived the regiment’s first disastrous operation: a parachute drop in support of the Operation Crusader offensive in Libya in November 1941. It proved to be an unmitigated disaster when 22 men out of 60 were either killed or captured by the Germans.
The second was far more successful and saw Bob Tait as one of five commandos who snuck into a German aerodrome deep behind enemy lines and laid explosives that destroyed 37 aircraft. The raid secured the future of the SAS as it convinced military chiefs a specially trained unit that could operate behind enemy lines was needed.
In between the raids, the members of the newly formed unit held an informal competition to design the insignia for the regiment. Tait’s design of King Arthur’s Excalibur sword - not a dagger as commonly thought - with light blue wings either side of it was voted the best by the rest of the men and is the cap badge still in use today.
The SAS insignia represents King Arthur’s flaming sword Excalibur - not the dagger as it came to seen as. Indeed the name ‘the Winged Dagger’ appears to have first been published in a SHAEF communique of 1944 which was then quoted in the Sunday Times and Observer newspapers.
Having already been awarded a Military Cross and Bar with the 3rd Hussars, Roy Farran joined 2nd SAS in 1943. Although not serving with the Regiment when the insignia were developed, his book, ‘Winged Dagger’ was truly the first book to shed light on the SAS when it was published in 1948. The image of the ‘winged dagger’ stuck in the public consciousness.
Early examples were made up by Cairo tailors and many variants can be seen.
By March 1944, the 1st and 2nd SAS Regiments returned to the United Kingdom and joined a newly formed SAS Brigade, a component of 1st Airborne Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning, with Brigadier Roderick McLeod in charge of the SAS. Many more badges would be required, and it was essential that a standardised design was agreed upon - see top right.
In March 1951 the Malayan Scouts adopted the maroon beret and the badge of the Special Air Service and this was worn by the members of 21 SAS who formed the new B Squadron - see centre left. The instruction that brought the Malayan Scouts into the British Army Order of Battle as 22 SAS Regiment dates from 16th July 1952.
The central badge was worn by 21 SAS on the right arm when it was formed in 1947. At that stage they wore the Mars and Minerva cap badge of the Artists Rifles on their maroon berets which was of similar design. However, in 1956, these were swapped, and the design of the beret badge was published in that year (rather curiously on a crudely cut out backing)
The 1956 badge was worn throughout the 1960s - see bottom left. But this had become somewhat anaemic by the early 1980s. The current pattern is shown bottom right.
