Now, here is a nice silver badge, with King Georges monogram and the legend: “For King and Empire, Services rendered.”
This badge will be featured on my blog twice. This time about the badge itself. Next time when I have researched the recipient and the cause of discharge. I look forwards to researching it as the individual number makes it researchable.
Officially this is the “silver war badge”, introduced in September 1916. However it is also referred to as the wound badge or discharge badge, and there is a reason for that. It was not allowed to be worn on uniform, only on civilian clothes, and the reason is the same. It was actually to protect those who had served from harassment.
There were patriotic woman organizations who were committed to shaming those who had not enlisted to fight. When they saw a man of military age not in uniform, they would give him a white feather as a sign of cowardice. This public shaming added up to pretty problematic harassment, and veterans who had returned home with wounds that were not easily visible suffered from this.
So, this badge was introduced and given to those honorably discharged from service due to wounds or sickness. Later, from April 1918, it was also given to civilians, nurses and others. The early badges had no prefix, just a number. The RAF and Royal Navy got their own prefixes in April 1918. Mine, with the B prefix, is the third series issued from September 1918 to December 1919. Mine, having a relatively low number, B21848, was probably issued during WWI (I will find out in detail later).
So, in reality, a badge intended to shield those who had served from being publicly shamed by patriotic women. What a strange problem, but definitely real.