Sir: The Emper , r Franz Josef ('Britain's unwilling enemy', 0 November)
was also Honorary Colonel -If the King's Dragoon Guards, senior British -avalry regiment of the line. The regiment's -ap badge, gra- ciously conferred by Franz Josef himself, was the double-headed eagle of the Habs- burgs. During the first world war this was replaced by an undistinguished star symbol, in order to avoid embarrassment; one of the many silly changes, like renaming the Coburg Hotel the Connaught. Fortunately, the Habsburg double-headed eagle was restored to the KDGs after 1918; and this most elegant of British Army badges was worn with pride thereafter, through the sec- ond world war (when the imperial Austrian connection no longer applied), even unto the regiment's amalgamation with the Queen's Bays in the 1960s.
Anthony Mott
50 Stile Hall Gardens, London W4
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