Identity Discs

[chaudiere1944]

Hi All,

An e-bay auction last night for a set of Identity Discs sparked some questions that I have not been able to find an answer to in any of my literature.

The Identity Disc on E-Bay were to a Soldier (Corporal) from Quebec. Whenever I see a set to one from Quebec I always cross reference the Service Number with my list of Chaudiere soldiers to see if there is a match. In this case, there was a Soldier from the Chaudiere with the same first initial and last name, however he was a Sergeant and his Service number was D157818 instead of D157808...one number difference and only 10 numbers away!

So my questions are:

1) Each time a soldier got promoted I suspect he received a new Identity Disc with new rank included. What would have happened to the Identity Disc being replaced, would the soldier keep it or would it be turned in?

2) How common were errors for the Identity Disc. In this case it was just 1 one number difference...possibly a 0 was 'punched' instead of the 1. Would an error Identity Disc be kept or destroyed? I would have thought it would be destroyed due to the importance of the Disc in identifying the individual. That being said, I suspect the odds of this being the same soldier were quite high.

3) With regards to initials. If a soldier had 2 intials would they ALWAYS use both initials on the Identity Disc or could they use just 1? For example my first and middle intials would be M E Kennelly...could the Identity Disc just use M Kennelly. If using both intials would it have had something to do with another soldier who shared the same first inital and last name and by using both initials it could distinguish them?

As a fyi, I passed on bidding on the e-bay item.

I have attached a picture of the Identity Disc in question and also a reference to Identity Discs that I found in the LAC for the Chaudieres.

Thanks in advance
Mike

[Combover]

Originally Posted by chaudiere1944

So my questions are:

1) Each time a soldier got promoted I suspect he received a new Identity Disc with new rank included. What would have happened to the Identity Disc being replaced, would the soldier keep it or would it be turned in?

Not necessarily but they should be turned in, to avoid confusion.

Originally Posted by chaudiere1944

2) How common were errors for the Identity Disc. In this case it was just 1 one number difference...possibly a 0 was 'punched' instead of the 1. Would an error Identity Disc be kept or destroyed? I would have thought it would be destroyed due to the importance of the Disc in identifying the individual. That being said, I suspect the odds of this being the same soldier were quite high.

About as rare as you can get. It would throw the whole grave detail into dissaray if their was an error of this sort. I assume it did happen but not that often. A disc with such an error would be thrown away or destroyed once the error was found. If they were salvagble, the army could over-stamp them, which you sometimes see.

Originally Posted by chaudiere1944

3) With regards to initials. If a soldier had 2 intials would they ALWAYS use both initials on the Identity Disc or could they use just 1? For example my first and middle intials would be M E Kennelly...could the Identity Disc just use M Kennelly. If using both intials would it have had something to do with another soldier who shared the same first inital and last name and by using both initials it could distinguish them?

If you had a middle initial, it went on the tag. Unless you were an officer, then it wasn't so critical.

[chaudiere1944]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the response...I had actually forgotten about this post as it was back in March!

Do you have a reference or source for the answers? They all seem to make sense to me and was what I had suspected...I always like to have the documentation to support it.

Thanks again,
Mike