UVF pin badge

[colinards]

Hi, I've just found this forum and would seek some assistance in identifying the origin of what appears to be an original UVF badge as described above.  The back is stamped H135 but I've been unable to even find which area 'H' relates to.  I also have an original UVF Certificate in proficiency (issued I believe to a relative of my wife)

Any help appreciated

Colin

[Tyrone loyalist]

Hello Rob do you you have a list for the Tyrone battalion as I was left lapel badge and was never told who it belonged to. You help would be greatly appreciated 

[Michelle Young]

@rob elliott last visited the forum last year. My tag may alert him to your post. 

[Tyrone loyalist]

He seems to be very knowledgeable in this area so if anyone could help me get in contact with him I'd appreciate it

[rob elliott]

Michelle,

Thanks for letting me know about the post.

@Tyrone loyalist

Unfortunately the UVF lists were never centralised at HQ, they were always kept locally. Therefore any that survived were in the hands of secreteries of the Reigiment, Battalion or even down to Company & Platoon Level.

To the best of my knowledge no one has s copy of the major surving records. Londonderry City being the most complete with 3700 names. I have that, plus sections of Londonderry County & Strabane, which would be Tyrone. So I am happy to look through the Strabane list....although I might need a day or so to find it. Not on computer files. There is another man has a list I think of part of Tyrone I can ask too.

The other big list is County Antrim which I think is now in one of the museum's. 

A good book came out about County Fermanagh a couple of years ago which had a lot of Irvinestown & surrounding area names in it.

So if you can give me the number I'll see if anything comes up.

[Martyn 1]

On 04/07/2008 at 23:04, rob elliott said:

Bob/Mick

The original lapel badges were stamped out from the back and carry a manufacturers code. The quality of the pressing are usually very good.

I have about 14 of them and they are all made in the same way even though the metal is not always pure brass.

With the material being thin most of them are slightly distorted too.

E-bay has recently had a few on that were original and depending on there Number/Letter they were going for up to £100.

The pin back ones were going for £3-5.

Some UVF/36th Division badges were copied as far back as the 60's [14th Rifles-YCV especially] and you can see them pop up on e-bay.

Original UVF stuff like the armband gets a high price now.

I have seen one blank badge some years ago and was led to believe it belonged to UVF Staff HQ.

It would not be too difficult to make a copy and perhaps if it is very old it may have been done as a sweetheart brooch, as was done with many regimental badges and buttons.

I have the full enrolment list for the Londonderry Battalions. If anyone has a badge belonging to the City i can tell you who's it was.

These will be pre-fixed with the letter 'I'

Rob

Hi Rob 

really interesting and great knowledge, I have just picked up a badge number 296 for Londonderry 

it comes with a number of other period badges that I have confirmed belong to a Woman signed the declaration 

thanks 

Martyn 

 

 

[Airshipped]

Not my area of interest at all but I noticed that many of the commercial genealogy sites are carrying 'content' of scanned files from the 1912-1922 era (which has broadly been labelled as a 'decade of centenaries' here in the Republic).

In that regard there's quite a lot of information now in the public domain on the extent to which the authorities monitoring the loyalist marching and drilling even prior to the Ulster Covenant or the formation of the Ulster Volunteers.

From TNA WO 141/26 I extract three pages as an example. (Credit FMP). The lists run to dozens of pages with each Dublin Castle intelligence bulletin but as may be noted from the first page of Ulster paramilitaries there's a reference to Artigarvan, Carricklee and Sion Mills, which would all broadly be the west Tyrone/Strabane area.

 

I'd imagine you could draw up a matching list between those who were pre-1912 paramilitaries, those who signed the Ulster Covenant and who became Ulster Volunteers, and those who perished with the 36th Division at the Somme. (Not at all my area of interest but I'm sure that someone has made at stab at tackling the huge wealth of material that is coming into the public domain as the years pass).

Best of luck with any attempts at pin badge authentication but I suspect that there'd have been replicas produced in huge quantities on the 25th and 50th anniversaries etc.

[Martyn 1]

Hi there 

thanks for this information, I have looked at some online material as I have a name , not for UVF badge but related as it is part of a group of badges all of the period 

thanks again for taking the time to reply