British Legion Associate Membership Badge and Honorary Membership Badge - Royal British Legion in North Online Museum Staffordshire

History and Online Museum of the Royal British Legion in North Staffordshire

	Associate, Honorary & Club Membership Badge

Photograph of an RBL Associate Gold Member badge

The Associate, Honorary & Club Membership Badge of The Royal British Legion and British Legion

The Associate Membership & Honorary Membership Badges of The Royal British Legion and British Legion have evolved in the 86 years since it's founding of the British Legion 1921. Various enamel badge manufacturers have had the honour of manufacturing the different types of badge over the years.

Honorary Membership

Based upon new research into the badge design registration Honorary Membership started in 1922 and 1923 for the Women's Section. The 1925 Royal Charter confirms that there where four types of members; Ordinary, Life, Honorary and Women. At that time this membership category was primarily civilians who a branch thought worthy were awarded Honorary Membership, or who felt strongly about the cause that they volunteered there services to assist those who at fought in The Great War. Latterly this membership included serving servicemen, servicewomen and in the 1960s membership to British Legion Clubs. Honorary membership had a limitation placed upon them initially that no more than 10% of the membership could be Honorary Members, from 1969 onwards it became a 60: 40 rule.

Associate Membership

After 1973 Honorary Members became Associate and Honorary Membership became the province of serving members of HM Forces only, but in 1981 this all changed when they were admitted to Ordinary Membership.

Youth Associate Membership

In 1990 the Youth Associate membership was introduced for ages of 14-17 to recognise young people's involvement with the Legion.

In fact Youth membership dates back to between the wars when the British Legion was affiliated to the Scout movement but Youth Club membership had begun in the late 1960s when Legion branches formed Youth Clubs.

Enamel Badge Manufacturers

In this online exhibition of Royal British Legion (RBL) and British Legion (BL) Honorary & Associate membership numbered badges, examples can be found from the following enamel badge manufacturers:

Birmingham Medal Company - BL
J. R. Gaunt, London - RBL, BL
Premier Badges - RBL

Badge Construction

The construction of 1922-1945 British Legion Honorary Member Badge is of naval blue enamel over polished brass, with a horizontal white enamel crossbar with the wording "HONORARY" in uppercase. They came in two sizes the larger of the two measured 1" x 1" (26mm x 26mm), the smaller ¾" x ¾" (20mm x 20 mm). The design of the badge was registered RD 688125 can usually be found at the bottom of the badge. Men's badges have a crescent shaped button hole fixing and women's badges where in the form of a brooch with a pin attachment. The Women's Section version of this badge dates from 1923.

The design of the British Legion Associate & Honorary badge has remained the same there are some variations mainly in the design of the corporate lion logo and of course the metal of manufacture. In around 1945* the British Legion badge when larger badge was replaced by the smaller this was originally assumed to have taken place due to metal shortage caused by WW2, however subsequent research has established that in 1946 during 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Legion the larger badges where replaced by the smaller. Both sizes of badge come in either a button or a brooch type.

The Royal British Legion now has a Single Membership, giving all members equal rights to participate in Branch, County and National decision-making processes of the organisation. The Associate Member's Badge, has become obsolete and has been consigned to history...

New Layout: Run your cursor over the badge to find out more about it, then click to enlarge the photograph.

Associate , Honorary & Club Membership Badges

British Legion Memorabilia Collectors Club - Associate & Honorary Member Page
a dedicated web site for the serious collector of British Legion History.