Bit Of A Longshot

[firewatch]

Heres goes my great grandfather could not fight in WW1 he was to short even for the bantam battalions. He tried to enlist several times using ingenious methods to increase his height but each time failed. He was given some sort of badge to wear to show he had tried to enlist but failed in order to stop being given the white feather of shame. We have photographs of him wearing it but the name for it has gotten lost over time, anyone know what it may have been called?
He lived and endevoured to enlist in the East End of London.

[woofgang]

was it this one?
http://www.1914-1918.net/soldiers/swbrecords.html

[emeritus]

Covered here I think

http://www.tomtulloch-marshall.co.uk/On_War_Service_Badges.html

[firewatch]

i will get the photo out of him wearing it and see if its similar thank you, the photo is not very clear which is why i was asking :)

[KARL]

Intriguing, and before reading your post I had never heard of such a thing - certainly an historical curiosity. But is it not to us astonishing that an otherwise upstanding adult alive in those times felt compelled to obtain and wear a mark which certified that he had repeatedly tried but failed to enter what almost certainly was/is the most awful wholesale waste of human lives ever brought about by arrogant leaders ? That the same carnage is to this day celebrated as something admirable/glorious is also rather grotesque.

[woofgang]

I have never seen it celebrated as something brave or glorious. Certainly the courage of the soldiers is remembered with gratitude. But I don’t think anyone admires or glories in it.