British Army Hotchkiss Gunner (“HG”) proficiency 2 part brass arm badge.

British Army Hotchkiss Gunner (“HG”) proficiency arm badge, sometimes described by collectors as a trade or sleeve badge. More precisely, it was a skill-at-arms/proficiency badge, rather than a regimental or rank badge.

The wreathed “HG” indicated a first-class qualified Hotchkiss gunner—a soldier who had achieved the required higher standard following instruction and examination on the Hotchkiss machine gun.¹ A period badge summary records that, from 1917, first-class marksmen for the Lewis and Hotchkiss guns wore “LG” and “HG” respectively with laurel sprays.²

Who wore it?
The badge is particularly associated with:

• British and Indian cavalry machine-gun sections
• Yeomanry and other mounted units
• The Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry)
• Some armoured or mounted formations equipped with the Hotchkiss

The British .303-inch Hotchkiss Portable Machine Gun Mk I was manufactured in Britain during the First World War specifically for issue to cavalry units, according to the Imperial War Museums.

It was normally worn on the left forearm or lower sleeve. There is also some photographic evidence of variants worn above right-arm chevrons, possibly by instructors, although this was not the usual position.

Date
The most likely official period for this badge is approximately:

1917–1921, with some examples reportedly continuing in use considerably later.

The HG badge was declared obsolete in 1921, when “LG” was repurposed to indicate a general light-machine-gunner qualification. Specialist references suggest that the old HG badge may nevertheless have persisted in a few cavalry units until they were mechanised or dismounted—possibly as late as about 1940.