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Showing results for tags 'Official and Unoffical Variants'.
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"On War Service" These badges were worn by civilians during WW1 in order to indicate the person wearing it was engaged on important war work. Before conscription was introduced in 1916 the Army relied on voluntary recruitment of men, and any man not wearing a karki uniform could be chastised in the street and accused of shirking or avoiding joining up and not doing their duty to their king and country. The badges were intended to prove the wearer was indeed doing their duty to their country in a time of war. The 1914 OWS.Badge was issued in 1914 by the Admiralty to workmen whose services were vital in the shipyards in the completion and maintenace of H.M.Fleet of Ships and Armaments. The 1915 OWS.Badge was issued by the Ministry of Munitions, the first pattern of this badge had a blue enamel rim similar to the 1914 badge, but this was soon dropped in favour of a plain brass economy version. The 1916 OWS.Badge was of a triangular shape issued after conscription had started in 1916 by the Ministry of Munitions, it was intended solely for women engaged in urgent war work and had a brooch pin fitting on the reverse instead of a button hole fitting used by men. Unofficial/Company OWS.Badges. Unofficial OWS.Badges began to appear very shortly after the Official Badge was introduced and by 1915 there were many different types in circulation produced by private companies to support their workers. These badges were later outlawed by Government Agencies in August 1915, Firms were instructed to withdraw these badges and that official badges would be issued to them against successful applications from the (COWSB) Committee On War - Service Badges. Below is one of the company badges for ( On War Service Fairfield) permitted to be worn from March to June 1915 by the War Office. Fairfield shipbuilding and engineering company as was commonly called was situated in Goven on the south bank of the river Clyde Glasgow, the yard built Warships, Submarines and a Train Ferry as well as many other types of crafts during WW1. Also a couple of other company badges. And the Official badges. Some dealers of these unofficial OWS.Badges are asking very high prices for this type of badge, I've seen the Fairfield badge going for between £50 to £65 which seems excessive to me. Below is a photo of a munitions worker wearing her OWS.Badge, and a Greeting Card from a munitions worker.