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The Silver War Badge was issued in the United Kingdom and the British Empire to service personnel who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness from military service in World War I.
The badge, sometimes known as the "Discharge Badge", the "Wound Badge" or "Services Rendered Badge", was first issued in September 1916, along with an official certificate of entitlement. If a person served in an active war zone then a King's Certificate of Discharge stating that they "Served with honour" would accompany the badge. [1] [2]
The large sterling silver lapel badge was intended to be worn on civilian clothes. 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. [3]
It was forbidden to wear the badge on a military uniform.[ citation needed ]
The badge bears the royal cypher "GRI" (for Georgius Rex Imperator; George, King and Emperor) and around the rim "For King and Empire - Services Rendered". [2]
Each badge was uniquely numbered on the reverse. [2] The War Office maintained registers recording the soldier and each badge number issued in the United Kingdom. [4]
The military authorities of Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Rhodesia maintained their own registers of issue (which were copied to the War Office in London to provide it with an Imperial master-record). This Master List was administratively destroyed by the Ministry of Defence later in the 20th Century, only a few pages of it are extant at The National Archives, in Kew, Surrey.[ citation needed ]
The War Office made it known that it would not replace Silver War Badges if they were lost, however if one was handed into a police station then it would be returned to the War Office, which would seek to return it using its records to its recipient.[ citation needed ]
Those personnel of HM Forces discharged after 31 December 1919 were no longer eligible for the badge. [5] [6] [7]
A similar award called the King's Badge was issued in World War II. Although each was issued with a certificate, unlike its World War I counterpart it was not individually numbered.
The "SWB List" when mentioned on a medal card refers to a single folio list, multiples of which are in medal rolls. Whilst these rolls are physically kept in The National Archives, these rolls can be consulted online via a genealogy service provider. [lower-alpha 1] There are two different types of cards on which the List can be mentioned.
There should be a reference on the card to a Silver War Badge Roll, for example in the picture above it says "SWB List TH/345" this refers to the War Office roll in which the man is mentioned. The medal roll itself would cover a range of lists, for instance "TH 1 - 400". These alphabetical prefixes relate to the regional record office which administered the badge issuance. [9] [10] [11] [12] On the Silver War Badge roll it should mention at the very least the number of the badge, the date of issue, unit at discharge, the official reason and date of his discharge, along with enlistment date. The more recent roll entries record the age of the recipient. [13]
Two sets of records were kept. One set is a list of unique numbers, in sequence. The other is several books of surnames in alphabetical groupings. These can be accessed online via Navy SWB Ancestry in ADM 171. [14]
If an airman was in receipt of a badge, this is recorded on the reverse of their service record (AM Form 175). There are neither comprehensive rolls of silver war badge recipients, [15] nor comprehensive rolls of WW1 campaign medals that have survived and been passed on from the Air Ministry. [16]
The first 500 issued to the AIF are on a War Office roll. Of the subsequent issues, there are 18 "Register of GRI Imperial Silver War Badge" ledgers. [lower-alpha 2]
The first 200 issued to the NZEF are on a War Office roll. Of the subsequent issues, circa 40,000, the associated documentation has not come to light. [18]
A portion of the registers have survived, and are kept in the archives at Ottawa. [19]
There were 29 different reasons for which a soldier could have been discharged under the King's Regulations. On a Silver War Badge Card, it could say KR (xxi) as it does on the example SWB card. This stands for King's Regulations, section 21. The different regulations were:
In addition, further conditions of discharge were announced by Army Order 265 dated 10 August 1917. [21] This, in turn, was superseded by Army Order 291 of October 1918. [22] That too, in turn, was superseded by Army Order 29 of January 1919, following the cessation of hostilities which permitted the issuance of badges for the rest of 1919. [23] The Cessation of issue to soldiers was announced by Army Order 43 dated 20 February 1920.
Approximately 1,150,000 badges were issued, which had to be claimed and then approved, generally covered by §(xvi) above.
Williamson has undertaken an analysis of the number ranges issued to soldiers by the War Office. [24] The following was deduced:
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Several different designs of medal cards were used but the most common type was the following:
[Comment from themonsstar] The Badge was issued with a certificate of issue in a box from the Record Office of their unit. Line [infantry] regiments were grouped in geographical regions around the Record Offices and given an individual code.
On the medal card of Pte William Martin, along with his medal entitlement, it's stamped S.W.B. List H/2761/2, but how do I find it?
There are two entries for the SWB. He is listed on ADM 171/182 and ADM 171/187. Could somebody receive more than one?
There is only one surviving roll available for the RAF Silver War Badges and that is in AIR 2/197/C33296 it covers badge number 9426 to 9492. However, after years of research, I can now identify about 9100 out of the 11050 badges.
The Air Ministry maintained these medal records and they have not been transferred to The National Archives.
Series MT1384/2 comprises 157 items in 199 volumes of registers of issued medals and badges. The types of registers include.. G.R.I Silver War Badge 1914/1918
MRNZ continues to compile the only existing database of NZ SWB names & numbers as the original records were destroyed. There are still many more SWBs unrecorded. If you have a SWB with an "NZ" number... please let us know.
there is no known complete list [of CEF recipients.]
image of Army Order 29 issued January 1919
[BWM] Awarded to "CH. 15748 PTE S. BARTLETT R.M.L.I.". [along with] Silver War Badge "RN 9240".
[three WW1 campaign medals] together with related Silver War Badge, the reverse officially numbered 'RN 41630', and two masonic temperance awards
[Comment from Ed_Haynes] Whilst the prefix 'BT' was certainly considered by the Board of Trade and the Admiralty at one point, 'MN' remains pure conjecture as the title 'Merchant Navy' wasn't even used until 1921 when it was bestowed by King George V upon the Mercantile Marine in recognition of services rendered (no pun intended) during the Great War. As it stands, a number of extant examples of the badge confirm the actual prefix to be 'MS' (for 'Merchant Service').
Archive Reference: MT 9/1404
This example with the impressed number SA3549 to the reverse.
Inscription: (reverse/verso): B116571 Service Component: Canadian Expeditionary Force
Silver War Badge with impressed serial number 'A97699' on reverse.
reverse: issue number inscribed verso : NZ11242
[Comment from Ed_Haynes] For India "I", the only ones I have..
The book includes: – Campaign Medals. Full history of each medal, including Army Orders, Army Council Instructions & award criteria.
Corrected to the 31st October 1916
Images and indexed transcriptions
Images and indexed transcriptions
Indexed transcriptions only, no images
Indexed transcriptions only, no images
Series MT1384/2 comprises 157 items in 199 volumes of registers of issued medals and badges. The types of registers include.. G.R.I Silver War Badge 1914/1918