History of military uniform buttons

by J K Cossum, 1988

For a similar report on New Zealand military buttons

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From 1788, British regiments had been stationed in Australia in regular overlapping periods and their supply of military buttons and insignia had been brought out from England with their respective Quartermasters.

In the mid 1850's there was a need for manufacturers of military buttons and insignia in Australia to supply the increasing number of volunteer units being raised in the Colonies.

Thomas Stokes started business as a die-sinker in Melbourne in the late 1850's, and was soon being called on to make buttons for the local volunteers, and with the other Colonies also raising new units, got orders for supplying both military and naval buttons for the eastern colonies in Australia. In 1861 he imported a press from England that was specifically designed for button manufacture, and by the mid 1860's was supplying military outfitters in the other colonies, in some cases stamping the reverse side of the buttons with the name of the outfitter.

For this reason, throughout this book, the reference 'naming' appears instead of the word 'maker'. Some colonies preferred to have their volunteer buttons manufactured in England, and this occurred right up until Federation i.e. 1901.


Button reverse showing solid back & fast shank	Button reverse showing hollow back & fast shank.

Button reverse showing solid back & drop shank.	Pre 1900 manufacturers offered military buttons for sale. This shows the presentation packs.

The pastime or hobby of button collecting has grown in the last ten years or so in Australia and most badge and uniform collectors go to extraordinary lengths to obtain the elusive button for completing a military tunic or perhaps to enhance their military badge collections. There are amounts of buttons being found on the sites of old military barracks and encampments in various states but unfortunately most of those found are in poor condition as can be seen from one or two photographs in this book.

Early British buttons were made mostly of pewter before brass was adopted in the 1820's and these are exceptionally hard to find but can be purchased through auctions in the U. K. where they can fetch a good price. Most of the British issue buttons worn in Australia between 1788 and 1870 are excavated, and some of the early local volunteer buttons are not as rare as one may think, turning up with medals and uniforms in auctions.

Whilst every major collector of military buttons in Australia was contacted for both material to photograph and information to use in this book, it would, be wrong to say that every button issued to military units in Australia's history, is included in this publication. Buttons will still be surfacing in years to come, as many that were made were issued to small volunteer units in outlying parts of Australia, that were only operating for a short time, as can be seen from the dates accompanying some of the buttons in this book.

Periods of issue are mentioned below each button prior to the 1960's, but in some cases the dates are approximate, as records concerning the formation and disbandment of the various units are almost impossible to locate.

Sizes mentioned as L, M, S, extra S denote the different sizes as:
- 'L' for large, used on military greatcoats, etc.,
- 'M' for medium as used on tunics jackets and dresses,
- 'S' for small, as used on pockets, epaulettes, cuffs, and some volunteer tunics, and
- 'extra S' for use on side-caps, peaked caps, Gorget patches on collars, etc.

The correct terminology is to describe buttons in 'lines', i.e.,38-40 lines equaled one inch, so large buttons were classed as 38-40 lines, medium buttons as 30-35 lines, and small buttons as 25-30 lines, but for the purposes of this book, 'L, M, S' should suffice.

Webmaster's note. This is not a full copy of J K Cossum's work. His was aimed at the button collector and contained a lot of information about the manufacturing method used for each button. My audience is not the collector, rather the casual observer, the family historian and the military historian. For that reason I have omitted the technical details.

The section covering British buttons that were worn in Australia while the various regiments served here does not cover all of the regiments as they are extremely hard to find and are quite rare even in the U. K.

As there are many variations in the map of Australia 'Commonwealth' pattern button, it has only been possible to reproduce some of the buttons here, to show the differences in the designs of the various manufacturers in all the periods it has been issued.