British Legion Royal Charter

[mike_vee]

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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