DOG TAGS

my great-grandad served with the 14th regiment of foot [ 1860 ] and his
number was 13 , that would have been an easy one on a dogtag ...

If they had had tags that far back! (Mind you, there would have been a number '13' in every battalion of every regiment at one time or another)

 

...my great-grandad served with the 14th regiment of foot [ 1860 ] and his
number was 13 , ...

Which, of course, they didn't... ... The first issue for the British (and Empire) being in 1907 (quite late actually)

Just for interest's sake, the following illustrates the first adoption year of the officially documented, army-wide issues of discs for various nations...


Germany (or, more specifically, the North German Confederation plus Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria) were the first to issue army-wide 'official' discs in 1869 (Though there was a small scale Prussian experimentation in 1866).

France issued official discs in 1881

Belgium followed suite in 1891

Italy in 1892

Japan in 1894

Serbia in 1894

Austria-Hungary in 1902

Russia in 1902 (on a regimental basis, but army-wide in 1909)

USA in 1906

Britain in 1907

Turkey in 1915