Hi All, my friend bought a flat in Edinburgh and found this whilst tidying. Any info? Silver War Badge? WW1? Has the personnel number 516536 on the back
Owen was right the badge was awarded to Martin MacDonald (Badge no 5165 36 ) He is on Ancestry but mine is playing up at the moment Medal card shows entitlement PDF below. Sorry Kyle
The number on the badge is not related to their army number. Search here. UK, Silver War Badge Records, 1914-1920 | Ancestry®
Interesting UK, Silver War Badge Records, 1914-1920 Name: Martin MacDonald Rank: Pte Military Year: 1920 Regiment: Machine Gun Corps Regimental Number: 54211 Discharge Unit: Machine Gun Corps Discharge Regiment: Machine Gun Corps. Badge Number: 5165 36 Piece: 3181 List Number: MGC 0601-1000 Record Group: WO Record Class: 329
I think I once heard that the badge was awarded partly to stop the public questioning men in the street, as to why they were not serving in the forces during WW1.
Silver War Badge - Wikipedia The decoration was introduced as an award of "King's silver" for having received wounds or injury during loyal war service to the Crown's authority. A secondary causation for its introduction was that a practice had developed in the early years of the war in the United Kingdom where some women took it upon themselves to confront and publicly embarrass men of fighting age they saw in public places who were not in military uniform, by ostentatiously presenting them with white feathers, as a suggestion of cowardice. As the war had developed substantial numbers of servicemen who had been discharged from His Majesty's Forces with wounds that rendered them unfit for war service, but which were not obvious from their outward appearance, found themselves being harassed in such a manner and the badge, to be worn on the right breast while in civilian dress, was a means of discouraging such incidents being directed at ex-forces' personnel. It was forbidden to wear the badge on a military uniform.
Poor old Arnold Ridley got the 'white feather' treatment, which he certainly did not deserve: The real-life wars of Dad's Army actor Arnold Ridley
Just to stress that, prior to SWB receipt, early 'white feather' hotheads needed far bigger deterrent signs of soldiers' incapacitation - hence the pragmatically-simple blue armbands as shown below for my granddad's case. He was incidentally rightmost in the inset group photo. I also deduce the 2 not wearing armbands, esp. the bath chair pusher, to have been fully-fit hospital orderlies/porters or volunteers on shorter leaves of absence. Steve
My grandfather's portrait showing his Silver War Badge on his lapel in 1918. 2 K.O.Y.L.I. wounded in action Hill 60 in 1915. Discharged 25th March 1916
Would be grateful if someone can find the SWB number for my grandfather William Samuel Altoft Johnson of the 5th (Royal Irish} Lancers. He had joined in 1910 and was severely wounded at the battle of Ypres in late 1914. When he died in 1925 with shrapnel still in his chest grandma had 5 children (aged 3 to 15) to look after and no pension was granted. Fortunately the oldest was in work. Mum said she did three jobs to make ends meet but still had to sell his medals to raise cash.
