Rising Sun Badge Boer War

The First Pattern - February 1902. There are seven patterns of the Rising Sun. The Rising Sun has evolved over time and today Australian Army soldiers wear the seventh pattern Rising Sun. During this time, a badge was urgently sought for the Australian contingents raised after Federation for service in South Africa during the South African (Second Boer) War. The most widely accepted version of the origin of this badge is the one that attributes the selection of its design to a British Officer, Major General Sir Edward Hutton, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Forces. Hutton had earlier received as a gift from Brigadier General Joseph Gordon, a military acquaintance of long standing, a ‘Trophy-of-Arms’ composed of mounted cut and thrust swords and triangular Martini-Henry bayonets that were arranged in a semi-circle around the Crown. To General Hutton, the shield was symbolic of the cooperation between the naval and military forces of the Empire.