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Lapel Badges

farmerdave

master brummie
Between the ages of about 10 and 15 many boys would wear at least one lapel badge on their blazer. One of the most common was the Ian Allen locospotters badge which came in a variety of colours depending on which railway region was represented. I know that I also had a triangular YHA badge, a National Trust badge and an I-Spy badge. Lapel badges also seem to be very popular with American Presidents. You would hardly ever see George W Bush, Obama or Trump without their lapel badge of the Stars and Stripes. I'm sure that there are many other examples of lapel badges being worn. Is it more of a boy/male thing? Dave.
 
Between the ages of about 10 and 15 many boys would wear at least one lapel badge on their blazer. One of the most common was the Ian Allen locospotters badge which came in a variety of colours depending on which railway region was represented. I know that I also had a triangular YHA badge, a National Trust badge and an I-Spy badge. Lapel badges also seem to be very popular with American Presidents. You would hardly ever see George W Bush, Obama or Trump without their lapel badge of the Stars and Stripes. I'm sure that there are many other examples of lapel badges being worn. Is it more of a boy/male thing? Dave.

Now I'm an old croaker the only badge I wear on my lapel is my Veteran's Badge. When I was a kid I used to read a comic called the Lion and as a member of their club I had a Lion badge to wear. My mate used to read the Eagle comic and he wore a Eagle badge, (I was dead jealous !).
 
Boys were perhaps more likely to wear a favourite jacket for playing in than girls. Schools might have objected to anything other than the single-colour house badges that were quite common or the limited in number of prefect or head boy/girl badges worn by secondary (grammar?) school children.
In the junior school I believe we were encouraged to join the RSPCA as junior members and they had a round badge similar in size to the house badge. If your mum bought enough Robertson's Marmalade you could collect the labels to get an enamel 'Golly' badge, available as plain or with sports kit. Wasn't there a card with ten outlines to stick the label tokens on. Corgi had a collectors club with a nice 'gold' and red enamel oval badge. I have still got a couple of those. They have a little loop on the edge which lets them be stitched in place. The Evening Mail had a 'Chipper' club (a cartoon dog) and that had a badge. St. John Ambulance badges were common too, part of a junior first-aiders scheme. Being a 'wild child' I never submitted to the 'cycling proficiency' regime; I believe they gave out badges to 'conformist cyclists'!
 
Robertson's "golly" badges - would not be allowed today I imagine were available in lots of different styles. plain, scout, hockey, football, tennis also musical instruments (I seem to recall bagpipes) etc - I had loads - no idea where they went to though.
 
Found this pin badge in the back of a draw yesterday. Would I be right in assuming it's something to do with Rackhams?
Pin Badge copy.jpg
 
This is a great thread and pictures of these badges have brought back so many memories! Sadly I don't have any photos or any of my old badges but I remember wearing Chipper Club, World Cup Willy, an I-Spy Badge and a Golly badge! And now I've just remembered my Uncle Holly badge I got for visiting the department store one Christmas! Later we made our own school House badges in metalwork lessons complete with enamelling, but then these were the only lapel badges we were allowed on our blazers.
 
This is a great thread and pictures of these badges have brought back so many memories! Sadly I don't have any photos or any of my old badges but I remember wearing Chipper Club, World Cup Willy, an I-Spy Badge and a Golly badge! And now I've just remembered my Uncle Holly badge I got for visiting the department store one Christmas! Later we made our own school House badges in metalwork lessons complete with enamelling, but then these were the only lapel badges we were allowed on our blazers.
Here's one for you BrummyPaul, and no doubt memories for others!
badges.jpg
 
Apart from an Uncle Holly badge the Biggles Air Police Badge is the only one I remember wearing. This would have been around 1958 when I was in infant school, which contradicts the dating I've seen on the web. I was so exited when I received it and a letter from Biggles - my Mom had sent off for it from an add on a Quaker oats box - my friend had one too.
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From the 60s I recall the first verse of the song which introduced the TV programme......
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Also popular in the 60s and 70s was the cycling proficiency badge. Most lads in senior school had one as cycle proficiency training was mandatory if you wanted to cycle to school.
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One of our senior school teachers also wore a silver cross in his lapel - I just checked a school group photo and he is wearing it!
 
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I was an "Ovaltiney", I still have the booklet somewhere but not sure about the badge. I also had the "Judy" magazine club badge.
 
When moving house 4 Months ago ,found my Red Ian Allens badge and my trainspotters books.What memories.
 
Wilmot Breeden apprentices had a Fattorini enamelled lapel badge. Thought I still had mine but can't find it.
 
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