No. 452.— Collar and Military Badge. Insignia of the Order of the Bath.
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is an early Institution which, after having long been in abeyance, has been revived and remodelled, and has received fresh statutes in the years 1725, 1815, 1847, and 1859.
The Order, now numbering about a thousand members, consists of several distinct Groups or Classes, which include, with the SOVEREIGN, the Royal Princes, and some few distinguished Foreigners, Officers of our own Navy and Army, and also Diplomatic and Civil Servants of the Crown.
The Three “Classes” of the Order alike include members of the Three Services, and each class is divided into two divisions, viz. Military and Civil.
The “First Class,” of Knights Grand Cross of the Bath—G.C.B.—has 55 Military and 27 Civil Knights.
The “Second Class” numbers (with power to increase these numbers) 145 Military and 108 Civil Knights Commanders of the Bath—K.C.B.
The “Third Class,” not of Knights, but of Companions of the Bath—C.B.—has 705 Military and 298 Civil Members, who take rank between Knights and Esquires.
The Military Insignia are—The Badge, a complicated combination of devices, characteristic of the debased period which produced it. It is represented in No. 437.