Silver War Badge

Silver War Badge. Around the rim it says, "For King and Empire; Services Rendered"

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.

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. It was forbidden to wear the badge on a military uniform.

The badge bears the royal cipher of "GRI" (for Georgius Rex Imperator; George, King and Emperor) and around the rim "For King and Empire - Services Rendered".

Each badge was uniquely numbered on the reverse. The War Office maintained a register recording which serviceman each one had been issued to in United Kingdom, and the governments 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).[Note 1] Silver War Badges issued by the Empire's dominion nations had their identification numbers on the reverse prefixed with the first letter of the issuing nation: Australia with the letter 'A', Canada 'C', etc. In the United Kingdom 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.

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.

Silver War Badge - Medal Cards and Rolls

The "SWB List" when mentioned on a medal card refers to a list that is now kept in The National Archives. There are two different types of cards on which the List can be mentioned.

If there is no Silver War Badge Card, then the details of the soldier's discharge can be found out by a visit to The National Archives at Kew. There should be a reference to a Silver War Badge Roll, for example in the picture above it says "SWB List TH/345" this refers to the roll in which the man is mentioned. On the Silver War Badge roll it should mention at the very least the number of the badge, the official reason and date of his discharge.

A silver war badge card, can be accessed online via The National Archives, Documents Online. On the card it should mention the date of discharge, the cause and the number of the badge (in many ways just like a Silver War Badge Roll but online, and therefore easier to access)

Records for the Australian Imperial Force can be accessed via

King's Regulations For Discharge

A Silver War Badge Card. Courtesy of Documents Online, Crown Copyright

There are 29 different ways in which someone 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 are;

Issued Numbers

Approximately 1,150,000 badges were issued, which had to be claimed and then approved, generally covered by §(xvi) above. The numbers on the back of the badge kept changing during the war.

See also

World War One - Medal Abbreviations

Notes

  1. ↑ 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.

Resources

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