YMCA
 

a few YMCA items.

Very Nice BC!

I have seen three of those... however I have not seen the bottom left item. You've inspired me... I will take a few 'snaps' of the YMCA items in the reference collection compiled for our book. Having said that, a number of the items that I have, already appear in the Philanthropics section of Vol 1.

Regards

Mark

Some lovely badges.

Not an area I am familiar with but lovely to see these.

Cheers,

Roy

cheers Roy, lovely to hear from you. thanks for replying.
Mark, ive seen your badges from book 1 but looking forward to seeing your pics
bc

OK BC

Here are some (admittedly) rough snaps of the YMCA items in the reference collection. As you will see, many of them are from WWI and WWII and fall outside the scope of the post 1953 reference works we have written to date.

If others here are interested, I have simiar images of Everyman's Welfare Service and Salvos and Red Cross insignia from various periods as well. However, most miliatria collectors seem not to be overly interested in the philanthropic agencies which are authorised to wear their insignia on Australian Army Uniforms. I think that may be because they are not considered 'sexy'... or perhaps it's because they have not been covered in a reference book since Alfred Festberg's reference works went out of print in the mid 1960's. Whateverthe reason... only a small cross section of collectors seem to pursue these insignia. A bit like the previous comment on a lot of under documented UN Deployment insignia, the philathropics are not seen as 'main stream' militari and therefore they are rearely studied (except by the really 'hard core' types:).

Kind Regards and keep up your collecting BC:)
Mark

Many thanks BC and Mark for sharing pictures of your YMCA items :)

ymca and other patriotic ww1 badges.
 

Hi BC and Mark, i have a strong interest in the patriotic badges during ww1 in
australia.I believe i have the hat badge for the ymca collars with the red triangle
and wattle motif.I will post some photo's from my collection soon.It is really good
to see these badges as there are no photographic studies i know of for these and other patriotic badges. Mike.

Mike,

I really look forward to seeing a hat badge sized item to match the ones BC posted from the WWI period. Certainly, I've not yet to seen hat badge sized example of those, so it will be really instructive for me!

Mark

I have always been interested in all the accredited organisations and have a selection of badges with a few photos of wearers in army uniform. Attached are some additional conversation pieces. The small rising sun is another variety but I think the large cloth one might be American? It came up for sale a while ago from a US seller but I was not sure enough that it was Australian to buy it.

Y.M.C.A. badge
 

HI, i am having trouble with my computer at the moment and i cannot download photographs,but as soon as i get it fixed i will post the ww1 ymca badge.sorry that it is taking so long.Regards Mike.

Yes I agree... the philanthropics are generally misunderstood and very under-documented. Alfred Festberg's 1966 book on insignia for the Australian Army's Order of Battle ('OrBatt'), was the last published study on the topic that I am aware of. A.N. Festberg covered the insignia which philanthropic organisations were/are authorised to wear on Australian Army uniforms.

Of course, the Everymans' Welfare Service and the Red Cross and Salvos, YMCA and YWCA have published independent organisational histories of their own, however most of those are very hard to find reference sources as well.

Having said that, we have done a reasonable job (I hope) of providing a guide to the philanthropics in the post 1953 ('QEII') era and until we (or others) manage to produce similar books covering earlier periods up to 1953, this may well be the best place to publish details of items which have been seen in circulation.

I think that's an excellent purpose for a forum like this one :)

Yours in research and collecting
Mark

Nice pics! I agree that the larger cloth badge may be American... but as an international organisation, its hard to be certain without individual provenance.

I've formed the view over the years, that I'll pick items up when I see them... and worry about researching them later. I'd rather regret spending a few dollars (or a lot of them)... than moss out on a rare items I know very little about. At least, I've regretted passing things by on a few occasions... and that hurt more than having a few odd items in the 'swaps' box :P

Mark