The Citizen has taken its campaign to save the Glorious Glosters’ famous regimental Back Badge to Westminster.

The Gloucester newspaper took a group of Back Badge supporters – both young and elderly – to London for a face-to-face meeting with Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to explain why the county’s famous symbol of courage must be saved.

They fear that the Back Badge could disappear if an expected merger of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment into a “super” regional regiment goes ahead.

But The Citizen and its readers are determined that Back Badge will survive.

Editor Ian Mean travelled with the party to London and said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support the readers of The Citizen have shown for our campaign. In fact, it has provoked one of the biggest responses this newspaper has ever seen during its long history.

“Every message we have received has been written from the heart.

“Thanks to the help of our city MP the people of this county have been given a unique opportunity to tell the Government that the Back Badge must be saved.

“The Glorious Glosters bravely fought back-to-back at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801 to win this honour and the Back Badge has been worn proudly by generations of Glosters ever since. The Back Badge is an essential part of this county’s tradition and we are determined to keep it.”

More than 1,100 messages of support for the campaign have been sent to the newspaper and they continue to flood in every day, many being heartfelt, moving and passionate. Many come from old Glosters soldiers, their relatives or friends, who share a common pride in this county’s military heritage.

City MP Parmjit Dhanda said: “Part of my role as MP is to ensure that the things that matter most to local people like the Back Badge are actually put across in the strongest possible way to the decision-makers at the heart of Government.

“There is no better way of doing that than bringing together those people who have served and know most about it face-to-face with the Secretary of State.

“The Back Badge means a lot to the county of Gloucestershire.”

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