File:Ross & Cromarty Constabulary hat badge (NOT epaulette insignia) - with ampersand! (2302434199).jpg

UPDATE (12/2016) - An old photograph - with amazing quality of detail - of a group of Ross & Cromarty Constabulary officers then serving on the Isle of Lewis has recently come my way. Apparently taken between 1890 and 1901 the photo clearly shows the Sergeants and Constables wearing this insignia as badge on their kepi-type hats.

Note; By 1905, at which time a composite photograph was taken of all officers then serving in the force, the cap badge was a solitary Crown (Victorian one at that!)

The entwined initials "R & C" (Ross and Cromarty) - very similar to what Chief Constable Malcolm MacAulay had left behind in his previous force of Inverness-shire, where he had latterly been Deputy Chief Constable till appointed the Ross-shire Chief in 1898. The previous incumbent, James Gordon, had taken charge of the force about the time that Ross-shire and Cromarty were officially merged. Mr Gordon, having served through the ranks in the Ross-shire force perhaps saw no need to change insignia but MacAulay, an incomer (albeit only from Inverness-shire, being a native of the Island of Heisker off North Uist) clearly saw corporate rebadging as important soon after taking over in 1898.

As a result this very dainty item appeared, similar to the cap badge centrepiece. Whether it was too thin (and frail in service) or just too expensive is not known but it seems not to have lasted overlong. Mr MacAulay died very young in 1905, and it is likely his successors went for a cheaper option - a simple entwined "RC" - which makers would already have in stock for Renfrewshire and Roxburghshire.