British Legion Royal Charter
 

On 21st April 1925 the British Legion received their Royal Charter from His Majesty King George the Fifth . Where confusion occurs is that it was not until the 10th September 1971 that they were granted a 'Supplemental Charter' which stated "that the British Legion should henceforth be known as 'The Royal British Legion'."

One area I wasn't aware of was that in 1931 , under "section one of the Chartered Associations (Protection of Names and Uniforms) Act 1926" , their name , uniform and badges were given official "protection".

Details and descriptions of four badges covered were documented :
1. General Badge for Male Members.
2. Badge for Honorary Male Members.
3. Badge for Members of the Women's Section.
4. Badge for Honorary Members of the Women's Section.

The design of these badges remained the same until 1946 when at the Women's Section National Conference a motion was passed to redesign their badge to a smaller one with 'side bars' instead of the "Women's Section" scroll. The design of the Male Members badges remained the same but the size was also reduced.

NB. At this time (1946) a new contract for British Legion badges was given to Gaunt who had made the original badges from 1921 to 1926/27 when Birmingham Medal Co. got the contract.

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Excellent!!! Thanks Mike!

Terry

Hi Mike,

This was one of the problems I ran up against when I was trying to get a badge made for the branch centenary.

The lion head badge is protected by the Royal charter and I was told I could not use it in my design. I was told it can't be used in anything other than official products and in theory they need Royal permission to put it on anything.

I had a similar issue trying to use the poppy because as you know that specific 2 leaf design is protected by copyright and I was told I could be taken to court if I used it.

Michael

I have quite a few "Branch" badges that use the RBL lion head , most recently the Jersey Centenary badge.

Regarding the lion head and also the poppy , it seems the "rules" don't apply to Northern Ireland as they constantly produce badges which not only breach RBL rules but also quite often are copies of badges/coins produced by companies who do have RBL permission to use the poppy.

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I've seen (and own) a few of those badges as well Mike, all I can say is that's what I was told when I tried to get one made for my branch and I can't afford to be the one they choose to make an example of.

Michael