As promised here is the photo I was sent a year or two back. It combines an SWB with a badge for the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association.
The two badges have been nicely(?) combined to form a "dangler" and also gilded for good measure. Even the reverse arms of the badge (normally hollow backed like any cap/ collar badge) have had a small plate of silver sweated on to them, topped off with a flourish from the jeweller!
Normally it is impossible to identify NZ issue SWBs but there was enough of the number left to then compare it with the service file and, as luck would have it, some pedantic Records clerk had put the number of the badge on the discharge certificate. Again this wasn't a common practice.
So, here's a challenge: who can post photos of "modified" or altered SWBs? This could be the name of the serviceman, his service number (I've even heard of an address!) or other additions.
They might be professionally engraved or, as is often seen, the point of a compass or a pocket knife.
Get searching!
