Two Indian badges may be of interest to others
 

I have two badges brought from India in 1921 to Australia by my father, who worked in Aligarh - in his words "about the middle of 1920 I accepted a position at Mr Johnson’s factory - Pioneer Lock Works - at Aligarh. The assignment was to install an electro-plating plant." He also wrote "The factory also produced army badges or ‘pips’. There were no presses or machinery then and the badges were moulded in very fine sand with a little oil mixed through, in boxes called flasks. These were oval in shape about 3 inches x 4 inches. The badges were moulded in the homes of the mistris* and then delivered to the factory. Any fins were filed off and small dobs of coloured enamel applied, according to the requirements of the regiment. To prevent the two halves of the mould sticking together the join was dusted with lycopodium powder contained in a cloth bag - parting dust.**The spigots were part of the mould and the badges were fastened to the uniform with a split pin through the spigot."
* Evidently a mistri is a master craftsman or foreman, so says Wikipedia.
** I left this as it seems to make sense.
I hope this is of interest to someone. I have photos of two badges made by Johnson's, one for the Aligarh War League, (there is a long story about that) and Mysore (I think a badge of the Mysore Light Infantry, to which my father was coopted - as an Australian they thought he could ride - another story) and will post them now. Looking forward to your responses. PS my dad, born in 1891 (Yes!) died some years ago at the grand old age of 92. He lived quite a life.

Hello AnneA'h welcome to the Forum. Your account is active and open for posts

Thank you for posting, it was quite interesting.
Best
Jack

The First badge is, as you suggest, Anna, that of the Mysore Imperial Service Lancers, who served in both World Wars. In fact, there are a number of articles from May of last year about the unit, as the Prime Minister of India visited Israel - a first, I believe, for an Indian PM - and saw the memorial at Haifa, where the Mysore and Jodhpore Lancers won a victory against the Turks in 1918.

Thanks for the interesting post. Nice to know how the badges were made. I'm from India and someday plan to go to Aligarh to see if any of the old badgemakers remain. Am sure they're all gone now. Did your dad leave any more notes or photos of his time in India? And please tell us the Aligarh War League story. Incidentally, I would be interested in buying that badge if you ever want to part with it. Could you also post a photo of the reverse of the badge. We badge-crazy folks like to see both sides :)

best wishes
Sunil

Very interesting, thank you.
Keith

Thanks for this very interesting post about your father the badge on the left is to the Mysore Imperial Service Lancers, their descendent regt in the Indian Army of today is 61st Cavalry. Piffer

I think this is how I should reply to comments, starting with Sunil's:
First, yes my father left a raft of recordings (and objects) from his time in India. The recordings I have transcribed, and shall dig out and post (Ive put it all on a public tree in Ancestry, and its on on my computer). I spent some time in India in 1997-9 and visited people in Aligarh who knew Dad. I have a photo of the home and a list of names of people I met, people who had known my father. They may be leads to the old factory. The extract about the badges is but one recording. Complication: I have shoulder surgery next Monday and have qualms, about survival! but also typing afterwards. (Hence putting things like my dad's memorabilia in order.) At best I shall have trouble typing after it - will do my best. Second, I post here the reverse of the Aligarh badge. (The Mysore badge reverse has no imprint on it at all.) Third, I'm not sure about selling them. I have no idea of their monetary value. They should go to an heir who respects history, but if not, to someone who does. That is my main concern. We can keep in touch perhaps through this forum?

Thanks Peter, and also Piffer, as this is precisely the information I wanted. I am parcelling up things of sentimental value for my heirs, and labelling them, as one does prior to surgery at my age - morbid perhaps but the exercise is a useful one and clarifying these badges' provenance is fascinating after so many years. I now have a base of knowledge upon which to build. I am hoping my grandchildren will treasure these things as I and all here on this forum do.
As soon as I can manage I shall post badge-relevant transcriptions of my Dad's time at Johnsons, one being his time in the lockup during rioting in Aligarh, and other anecdotes which may be of use/interest.

Hi AnneA'h
Thanks for posting the reverse of the badge. Frankly, monetary wise they won't go for too much, but as you said it's better if someone in your family keeps these heirlooms along with the stories behind them. It's very thoughtful of you to take care of these items and to have bothered to take transcripts/recordings of your father's time in India. It's all part of history.

Am sure the surgery will go well (I had one last month on my leg and am getting better, but then I don't need my leg to type :D ) Am sure you will recover soon enough to be able to give us more. I would be certainly interested in the Aligarh lock-up story. Do post when you can and go through the forum when you can. The badges here tell many interesting stories.

My very best wishes,
Sunil

P.S. have send you a private message with my personal email. You will see the notification of the top right hand corner of the page when you get a message from a member

Anna

As Sunil says, if the family is interested that's always first choice. I once worked in a militaria store and was, not surprisingly I suppose, depressed by how many descendants clearly didn't care, but anyone you 'meet' in this rather small gene pool would likely treasure even these not so rare badges for the history they represent and not the Euros they might bring.

Good luck with the surgery and, once you're up to it, please do get in touch again!

Peter

Get well soon Anna.
Piffer

Further to the Aligarh war league badge and some anecdotes for my father
 

TOday is Day 1 post shoulder surgery and typing is tedious work. Just assuring those interested that I shall get back to send the fuller papers about Aligarh , but it will be some weeks, as rotator cuff surgery plus related shoulder work will mean 6 weeks with an immobilised right arm! It was the threat of surgery though that made me act to post here, so I suppose that is step 1 in finding out more and sharing the information, even though circumstances will delay further posts for now. Cheers and appreciation for your info thus far, Anne

Hang in there, Anna! :)

Hi Anne,

I thought you might enjoy seeing a couple of Gurkha badges produced by J H Johnson & Co Aligarh. The 9th GR badge was worn from around 1893>1925 - and I suspect this example is more likely to from the 1920's - and the 4th GR badge was worn from the 1900's to the 1940's. So both badges could have been made whilst your Father was there.

Good luck with the operation

Tim