Badge production numbers

[ubervamp]

Hi guys

Is there any way to get a rough figure of how many badges of a certain pattern to a certain regiment/battalion were produced?

I know ASC and RE were produced in vast numbers during the Great War, but what about a battalion like, say, the 8th Hampshire (Isle of Wight Rifles) TF?
They raised a second battalion for home service in 1914 which was discontinued in 1918, so for four years only constituted 2x900 + . And I'm guessing before the war, and after there were probably many years they were below battalion strength.

What sort of numbers would we be talking about here? 10's of thousands? More?

Colin

[KLR]

Colin, On 17th April 1916 the War Office put out a tender for 3,000 GM Bronzed cap badges with vertical shanks for the 8th Hampshire Rgt (Isle of Wight Rifles) at 24/- per gross.

Yes, there are figures, but they only appear every now and again. Those for the 2nd W period are more comprehensive. It has taken me ages to collate such evidence for the KLR, it would take a long time to create something for all units !!

Clothing Regulations also provide some data on how many badges were supplied to battalions - but I can't find that at the mo.
J

PS regarding your corps comparison, the same tender asked for 80k for the RE and 100k for the ASC

[Mike_2817]

Got any figures for the 'Army Ordnance Corps'

[KLR]

20k

I only photocopied a few pages of this tender so I won't be able to provide figures for every unit there was !!

[ubervamp]

Originally Posted by KLR

Colin, On 17th April 1916 the War Office put out a tender for 3,000 GM Bronzed cap badges with vertical shanks for the 8th Hampshire Rgt (Isle of Wight Rifles) at 24/- per gross.

Yes, there are figures, but they only appear every now and again. Those for the 2nd W period are more comprehensive. It has taken me ages to collate such evidence for the KLR, it would take a long time to create something for all units !!

Clothing Regulations also provide some data on how many badges were supplied to battalions - but I can't find that at the mo.
J

PS regarding your corps comparison, the same tender asked for 80k for the RE and 100k for the ASC

Julian

Thanks as always!
As a matter of interest, and comparison, do you know how many were produced for the KLR 1914-1918?

Cheers

Colin

[KLR]

No, that 1916 data is all I have for the 14-18 period, but I have figures for random years before and after that.

[hagwalther]

Originally Posted by ubervamp

Hi guys

Is there any way to get a rough figure of how many badges of a certain pattern to a certain regiment/battalion were produced?

I know ASC and RE were produced in vast numbers during the Great War, but what about a battalion like, say, the 8th Hampshire (Isle of Wight Rifles) TF?
They raised a second battalion for home service in 1914 which was discontinued in 1918, so for four years only constituted 2x900 + . And I'm guessing before the war, and after there were probably many years they were below battalion strength.

What sort of numbers would we be talking about here? 10's of thousands? More?

Colin

Hi Colin,

From an A/A perspective.

I looked hard for such figures when I was writing my book. I only ever found a few examples for initial contracts, one if I remember was for the Highland Brigade. Also, about 20 others such as 17th/21st Lancers, Queen's Bays and a few others that were sent to Branston as a delivery to stores.

Checked the Highland Brigade:

2. The initial bulk order contract, (No. NX/E/03377/CT5B) with J. R. Gaunt & Son Limited, dated 5th September 1960 was for 21,000 badges. These were Priced, on 25th November 1966, at £15 per gross. File WO 32/17390, the National Archives, Kew, London

Of interest is this small transaction:

The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers

1. Contract No. 01155 consisted of 84 badges that were sent to Branston. Branston Delivery Document - Branston Delivery Document - A memorandum of delivered and outstanding contracts titled MINISTRY BADGES, dated 13th May 1960, unlabelled and held in file WO 32/16956, the National Archives, Kew, London..

Unfortunately, most of the time the maker was not given on the official document for shipments to Branston.

More info in Appendix 4: Authorised Cap Badges

Regards

Chris

[Mike_2817]

As a matter of interest, In 1962 the War Office (MOD) decided to close Central Ordnance Depot (COD) Branston and move most of the work to COD Bicester, Oxfordshire and over the following two years all the stores were transferred. Section CB was moved to D1 (Bulk) & D2 (detail issues) at the Gravon Hill Sub-Depot at Bicester.

In 1964 Branston Depot became ‘Ordnance Disposal and Storage’, a civilian run complex of the War Office (MOD) and later handed over to the Home Office in 1974

I do not think the manufacture was ever marked on the Receipt Docket, as once received at an Ordnance Depot from Trade the Part No, Short Description, DofQ & Quantity Received was all that was needed, pinned to the Delivery Note and passed for processing.

[Tim B.]

An older thread but interesting, as it leads to the basic question: Where are all these badges today?

I'm new here and still reading through countless pages of threads in various forum sections before really getting into my specific questions. I feel it's important to read and try to catch up on old topics vice asking members the same old questions that might have been asked and answered repeatedly over the years. So, if you see me bringing many older topics back to life....

Anyway, in my searching and reading, there was another thread where someone asked why so many are buying fake items when obviously with a little research they would know the difference. To which another member stated, many, perhaps more novice collectors believe with so many badges being initially produced, there would be more than an ample supply of original badges out there and manufacturing fakes at this point would seem unproductive and unprofitable.

I certainly can see and agree with that mindset as I would take, the larger the contract the more items produced and more common we see these items still being available today. I'm sure we see that to some extent with some regimental badges more commonly being offered compared to others but, what I am reading, you pretty much see fakes in all areas, even the very common type badges.

So, what happened to all the originals? Lost in battle, buried over time. Unissued stock melted down for something else..? Just curious.

Tim