Silver War Badge

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 publicly embarrassed men of fighting age 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.

[2] The War Office maintained registers recording the soldier and each badge number issued in the United Kingdom.

[citation needed] 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] Those personnel of HM Forces discharged after 31 December 1919 were no longer eligible for the badge.

Of the subsequent issues, there are 18 "Register of GRI Imperial Silver War Badge" ledgers.

[23] That too, in turn, was superseded by Army Order 29 of January 1919, following the cessation of hostilities which permitted the issuance of badges for the rest of 1919.

Williamson observed that in 1992 Steve Brookes had undertaken an analysis of the number ranges issued to soldiers by the War Office.