Bayonet Battle badge - Sweetheart ?
 

Can anyone help me with the inscription on the blade of the Bayonet Battle badge / Sweetheart please.

In the past I have seen others with WW1 battle locations before but never this one:

BLANK GHE

Many thanks
Destro

Hello Destro

I can't help identify the location (if it is one) but there seem to be quite a few of these 'sweetheart' bayonets around with that name on them. Try 'googling' 'Blank Ghe'; quite a few come up but unfortunately no identification of the place is made.

Roger

Bayonet
 

Hi Roger

I also looked on Google and found others the same but with no other information, thanks for looking.

Regards

The only thing I can think of is that the GHE might refer to the Battle of GHELUVELT in October 1914, but what BLANK refers to I've no idea.

David.

Bayonet
 

Thanks for your input David.

Could it Blank Ghe be a short form, or even a mistake, for Blankenberge?

Blankenberge is a coastal town in Flanders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blankenberge

Bayonet
 

I had considered this also but were does the 'h' fit in?

Thanks for your comment.
Regards

Destro
I have found two others same spelling on line sadly no description however just a thought Blank Ghe sounds a little German (Ghe) others thoughts on this

Regards

Stephen

[QUOTE=Destro1918;435995]I had considered this also but were does the 'h' fit in?

Thanks for your comment.
Regards[/QUOTE

The spelling of the names of Belgian towns can differ over time. For example, the Passchendaele of 1917 is now known as Passendale.

Language also plays a part. For example, Ieper and Ypres are the same place. One is the name in Flemish and the other in French.

To go on a completely different track, could 'BLANK' be Afrikaans (WHITE)? Just a thought.

[QUOTE=BWEF;436063]Certainly something to investigate, do any other members have this badge in their collection?

Blankenberghe is the old spelling of Blankenberge on the Belgian coast, just southwest of Zeebrugge, perhaps abbreviated on the bayonet? Only problem is, I don't think any major battles warranting such a souvenir took place there? Was there perhaps some significant R&R facility?

Rgds, Thomas

More likely the town was where the wife and family of returning veterans could have had a holiday while the husband/father was walking around the old Belgian battlefields.

Blankenberghe was a swishy sort of seaside place, and why not knock up some more souvenirs for sale to the rich tourists?

I should imagine that the factory had the basic bayonet and fixed whatever town names to it that they thought would sell.

I would suggest that the above comment is the right answer!

Pamela Caunt's second volume on 'Military Sweetheart Jewellery' illustrates a few bayonet brooches, one with 'Blankenberghe' and others with 'Waterloo', 'Bruxelles', 'Ostende' and 'Belgique', not exactly all noted First World War battles. She goes on to say that although these bayonet badges were made during the war and "inscribed with the name of the relevant battletown" they did continue to be made after the war purely as souvenirs for visiting tourists.

Roger

Bayonet
 

Gentlemen

Can I thank you all for taking the time to comment on this badge, I am happy to accept that it is one of the older ways for the spelling of Blankenberg, this badge could well have ended up in a box with nothing much known about it.
So with the power of the Forum,'Thanks' once again.

Destro