Jennens other rank badges
 

Did Jennens make 'other ranks' badges in the Great War?
They produced top quality officer badges showing their maker mark but surely with ORs badges being required in their millions they got involved with the production of those too?

I have wondered about this too. I'm not entirely sure that they did during the 1st WW
but I think they might well have done after the war.





The well known Gaunt late Jennens stamp must have been using J&Co dies after they took them over on 1925. But the badges stamped Gaunt are are slightly different.


J&Co certainly produced a (marked) different / unofficial (officer's) KLR badge in about 1914?? S&G and OSD) This was v different to the regulation 1896 Pattern (though they also produced 1896 Pattern badges too !!). However, there are photographs showing ORs wearing what appear to be the "unofficial" badge.



The well known Gaunt late Jennens stamp must have been using J&Co dies after they took them over on 1925. But the badges stamped Gaunt are are slightly different.


In October 1926 a new King's badge was authorised and it was 95% similar to the 'unofficial' J&Co badge ! It gets quite confusing because Firmin promptly took over the dies that Gaunt for the 1st Bn 'Foreign Service' badge (which had S&G, OSD and BM).


You will see the various types in my album (though not in any particular order).

I wil be writing all this in detail but there are a couple of archives that I need to consult - whenever various museums, archives etc open.


Do you know if J&Co made alternative / unofficial officer's badges for other regiments ???

I'm not sure about about other unofficial officers badges KLR

There appears to be pattern or design similarities between OSD die cast badges and other ranks badges. I guess without a maker mark on other ranks issues claiming it was from a specific maker 'because it looks like the OSD version' some would argue is speculative.

I was looking at this pattern Tank Corps ORs cap badge and noticed just how similar they are to Jennens die cast officer version.

An interesting approach would be to try and get OSD versions of the three common WW1 OSD makers- Gaunt, Fermin and Jennens and see how they compare to ORs strikings. Perhaps some of our specialist collectors have done this already?
Tank Corps would be a good one to look at and the pre-'royal' or pre 1919 KC ASC pattern?