Silver Badge Party
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during and immediately after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The unofficial party consisted of several groups representing the political interests of former service personnel who had fought in the war. The Silver War Badge (SWB)
Silver War Badge (SWB)
The Silver War Badge was issued in the United Kingdom to service personnel who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness during World War I...
was issued to servicemen who were invalided out of the forces.
First to be formed was the National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers
National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers
The National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers was a British veterans' organisation.The group was founded in early 1917 at a conference in Blackburn, drawing together various local groups representing working men who had served in World War I but had since been discharged. It...
(NADSS), established following a meeting in Blackburn in September 1916 and initially linked to the labour and trade union movement. In April 1917, the Asquith Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
MP James Myles Hogge
James Myles Hogge
James Myles Hogge was a British social researcher and Liberal politician.Hogge was educated at the Edinburgh Normal School, Moray House School of Education, and Edinburgh University, where he was president of the Liberal Association. Hogge at first wanted to be teacher...
sponsored a meeting at the National Liberal Club
National Liberal Club
The National Liberal Club, known to its members as the NLC, is a London gentlemen's club, now also open to women, which was established by William Ewart Gladstone in 1882 for the purpose of providing club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners among the newly-enlarged electorate after the Third...
over the Military Service (Review of Exceptions) Bill, which proposed to reclassify those invalided out of the army to identify those who might be recalled to service. This meeting led to the formation of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers (NFDSS).
The NFDSS decided to fight byelections to put its message across. In the Liverpool Abercromby byelection in June 1917, the NFDSS candidate polled a quarter of the vote. In the 1918 UK general election its National Executive approved five candidates, and local branches sponsored 25 more, considered Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
NFDSS candidates. In three Leeds constituencies, the candidates were nominated jointly by the NFDSS, the NADSS and the Comrades of the Great War
Comrades of the Great War
The Comrades of The Great War were formed in 1917 as a non-political association to represent the rights of ex-service men and women who had served or had been discharged from service during World War I. Comrades of The Great War was one of the original four ex-service associations that amalgamated...
. None of the candidates were elected although many polled substantial votes. In addition, the NADSS sponsored a candidate in Sowerby
Sowerby (UK Parliament constituency)
Sowerby was a county constituency centred on the village of Sowerby in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-History:...
in unusual circumstances in which he inherited the position of unofficial Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
candidate, and won.
The groups were politically diverse. Hogge was a left-wing Liberal, and most of the NFDSS were similarly left wing: among the NFDSS candidates was Ernest Thurtle
Ernest Thurtle
Ernest Thurtle was a British Labour politician.Thurtle worked as am accountant and salesman...
, who later became a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP. Henry Hamilton Beamish
Henry Hamilton Beamish
Henry Hamilton Beamish was a leading British antisemite and the founder of The Britons.The son of an admiral who had served as an A.D.C...
was a member of both the Vigilante Society and the NFDSS. In the 1918 general election he was one of the candidates sponsored by the NFDSS branches but not approved by the NFDSS National Executive, again in Clapham
Clapham (UK Parliament constituency)
Clapham was a borough constituency in South London which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
.
Following the election, none of the groups continued in active party politics. James Hogge resigned as President of the NFDSS in January 1919. Following pressure from Earl Haig
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC, was a British senior officer during World War I. He commanded the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 to the end of the War...
, the NFDSS lifted its ban on officers being members in June 1919 and the three groups together with the Officers' Association began merger talks. At a Unity conference on May 14-15, 1921, they merged to form The Royal British Legion
The Royal British Legion
The Royal British Legion , sometimes referred to as simply The Legion, is the United Kingdom's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants.-History:The British Legion was...
.