Identity discs

issued to all ranks together with 38 inches {1 metre} of cotton string to suspend them from the soldier/officer’s neck beneath his uniform. The number 1, green disc tied to the cord 6 inches from the number 2, red disc. The discs were differently shaped for differentiating in the dark. Each was impressed with the wearer’s initials, surname and Army or officer’s number, also, his religious denomination. The disc’s purpose was to identify the wearer’s body or remains on serious injury or death.

1930 Field Service Regulations state that the red disc should be collected but never the green one which must stay with the body. The Graves Registration Service found that both discs lost their markings in hot, desert soil; they peeled and were totally consumed in a vehicle fire. The cotton string fouled and rotted within days of temporary burial. Following these findings, stainless steel discs on nylon cord were issued for jungle theatres of war.

Major William James Spurrell was commissioned into the 9th (Service) Battalion Norfolk Regiment at the beginning of the war. He was wounded twice, awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross and was Mentioned in Dispatches twice. During the winter of 1915, billeted near Poperinghe, he became a regular visitor to Talbot House and became very good friends with the Rev. P B Clayton, know as Tubby, the founder of Toc H. The ideals of the Toc H movement remained with James Spurrell after the War and he spent a lot of time in public service in Norfolk in the scout movement, hospitals and District Council and well as the Church. In the Second World War he was appointed to the command of the 13th Battalion East Norfolk Home Guard. He clearly kept his First World War identity discs together with a white elephant charm, as souvenirs of his war time service.