Wireless Operator Badge, Ptn 1920

The clenched fist grasping six bolts of lighting is the trade badge of RAF Wireless Operators/telecommunications. The 1920 pattern badge employs a light blue thread on a black Melton patch, worn on the sleeve.

Colloquially known as the “Sparks” badge, it is one of the oldest badges in the RAF, issued under Air Ministry Order 1066, 19 September 1918. The initial pattern used red thread and was worn exclusively by wireless operators, but when the badge was reissued in 1920, blue tread replaced the red. In 1951, Air Ministry Order A. 380 advised that the badge be worn by all ground signalling and radio engineering trade groups.