DOG TAGS through the years

A Boer War era Australian Commonwealth Horse Squadron 8th Battalion paper (light cardboard) Identity Card filled in with the soldiers name W. C. Evans aged 22 from Prospect South Australia. Closed it measures approx. 4-7/8" long and 3-5/16" wide. Open it is 6-5/8" long and 4-7/8" wide. Note the twin languages and the "request" that it be sent back through the nearest CO.

Before WW1 identification disks (dog tags) were not used in the British Empire-Commonwealth Armed Services. Soldiers carried paper identification cards or books. See above.
- The Boer War indicated that a more durable product was needed.
Australia entered the Great War with a belief that only 20,000 men would be needed and that the war would not last long.
Arrangements were hasty and made from a small knowledge base.
As the war dragged on many alterations and improvements were made to all sorts of equipment including Identity Disks.
There was no one single standard.
- Various materials were used.
- There were varying shapes and colours.
- They carried varying amounts of information.
- Some were stamped, some engraved.
- Some were one sided, some double sided.
- Some were privately obtained, most were issued.
- Some were worn as bracelets, most were worn around the neck.

The purpose of ID disks was to identify a body or a badly wounded soldier. Should a soldier be killed other members of his Platoon were required to recover the round disk for return to HQ to allow for notification of next of kin, without mistakes about soldiers of similar name. The octagonal disk was to be placed inside the mouth of the corpse, being the place most likely to protect it and to keep it in-situ.

This was so even if time and man power allowed for battlefield burial. In all possible cases men buried on the battlefield were later transferred to proper War Cemeteries. Without ID disks mistakes would have been common. Later the blood group was added to the disks to assist battlefield medical teams. Denomination of religion was also added to allow proper burial arrangements.

Unofficial ID tag for a Trooper from 4th Light Horse

Hand made aluminium identity tag. The tag is manufactured from three layers of aluminium, the topmost being a small horseshoe, the five 'nails' of which fasten the layers together.

Within the horseshoe, the second layer shows a relief map of Australia, in which are hand engraved the words "3656 H.W. KENNEDY 4th ALH". The bottom layer of aluminium has been shaped to form a cavity, presumably intended to retain a leather wrist strap for the tag.

John 'Jack' Simpson Kirkpatrick was born in July 1892 in South Shields, at the mouth of the River Tyne in north eastern England.

As a young man, he joined the merchant navy, but deserted his ship in Australia in May 1910.

For the next year, he held a variety of labouring jobs in Queensland and NSW, before finding work on coastal steamers which occupied him until the outbreak of war.

Kirkpatrick enlisted in the AIF at Perth, Western Australia, but fearing that his history as a deserter might count against him, dropped his surname, becoming 202 Private John Simpson in 3 Field Ambulance.

This unit was among the first to land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and by the 26th, Kirkpatrick had struck on the idea of using a donkey to assist wounded men from the high ground of the front line back to the dressing stations near Anzac Cove.

Absenting himself from his unit, and known variously to the men of Anzac as 'Scotty' or 'Murphy' because of his thick Tyneside accent, he performed this dangerous task, often exposed to the fire of Turkish machine guns, snipers and artillery, until May 19, when he was killed by machine gun fire in Monash Valley.

Click for his full story

This image is of an early Great War single aluminium stamped ID disk. Note that it carries a rank which was a practice later discontinued and a Company (another practice discontinued).

Note also that the Religion was spelt in full (another practice discontinued to be replaced by an initial or abbreviation).

Note that the unit was referred to as 23 Batt. AIF (Australian Imperial Force). On later disks that would have been reduced to 23 AI (Australian Infantry)

Note the absence of a blood group, which was a later addition.

<< image from Grant's Militaria

Initially only one disk was issued (see above)

A later combination was the dual set. 1 (the metal one) was designed to be left in the mouth of the corpse and the the other returned to HQ to indicate death.

Octagonal leather identity disc joined by a short length of fine rope to a circular aluminium identity disc.

Leather disc is impressed '28 / F.E.T.FITTS / H.Q. / SIGS. / 29. A.I. / C.E.'.

Aluminium disc is impressed with '28 / F.E.T.FITTS / H.Q. SIGS / 29 A.I. / C.E.'.

Dog tags for 320 W G Forbes, a Baptist with 2nd Light Horse Regiment

As a general rule the disks carried
- Surname and at least 2 initials
  - sometimes 1 only
- Regimental Number
- Unit number and classification
- Religion

Keep in mind that during WW1 Commissioned Officers did not have any form of Regimental Number. Any Officer wearing ID disks with a number must have been promoted from the ranks.

Religions and their abbreviations

B.		Baptist
C.E.		Church of England
C.		Congregationalist
J.		Jewish
M.	METH	Methodist
P.	PRES	Presbyterian
R.C.		Roman Catholic
W.		Wesleyan

In WW1 each Battalion and each Light Horse Regiment started their Regimental numbers at 1. As a result, with over 60 Battalions and 15 Light Horse Regiments it was possible for there to be at least 75 soldiers, and maybe more, with the same regimental number. (See the details at ????)

When a soldier was issued a regimental number already in use in his Unit or in a Unit he was transferred into a letter, usually 'A', sometimes 'B', would be added as either a suffix or prefix to the number. (See Boon's disk, below centre)

These 4 images from Grant's Militaria

Circular aluminium identity disc impressed on one side '554 / H. MILLS / 9TH M.G.C. / A.I.F. / PRES.'.

Associated with 554 Private Henry MacIntosh Hopping Mills, who served with 9 Machine Gun Company and 3 Machine Gun Battalion, AIF.

He enlisted on 10 October 1916 and was killed in action on 8 August 1918 at Tout Suite Gully, Hamel. A report states that he was buried where he fell.

A cross was made but it is not known whether it was erected as the company was moving on.

Compressed fibre; Leather; 1916 issue octagonal compressed fibre identity disc threaded on a leather cord.

The disc is Hand engraved 'LT C NOAD 57TH AIF'. Associated with Lieutenant Charles Selby Alfred Noad of 57 Battalion, AIF. Noad was born in Melbourne in March 1896 and enlisted in the AIF on 16 July 1915.

He served initially as sergeant (regimental number 3110) with 6 Battalion before transferring to 57 Battalion. He won the Military Cross for his actions at Glencourse Wood on 25/26 September 1917 and embarked for return to Australia on 9 December 1918.

He enlisted again during the Second World War and served with the number V39529. He was discharged with the rank of captain on 26 March 1947.

Issued to 245 Private Herbert Horner while he was a prisoner of war. The discs were worn on his cap at the relevant camps. He was a farmer living at Lake Grace, East Wagin, in Western Australia, when he enlisted on 24 February 1916, at the age of 41. He served with 3 Machine Gun Company, before being taken prisoner by the Germans on 15 April 1917 at Lagnicourt, France. He was unwounded at the time of his capture. He was interned at Ribnitz, Gustrow and Friedrichsfeld bei Wesel prisoner of war camps. Horner was repatriated to England in December 1918 and returned to Australia on 19 April 1919.

Aluminium identity disc of Sergeant (later Warrant Officer Class II) Frederick George Jurd, 5 Pioneer Battalion, AIF. The disc is hand inscribed, freestyle on each side with the same information, once in small capitals, and once in a cursive script.

The text in both cases reads: '2332 Sgt. F. Jurd B. Coy. 5 Div. Pioneers A.I.F. C. of. E'. Frederick George Jurd was born in London in 1870, and enlisted in the Royal Marines at the age of 19.

He emigrated to Australia some time after 1910. On 15 August 1914, aged 43, Jurd enlisted in the naval contingent of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force as an Able Seaman serving with it until January 1915. In May 1915, he enlisted as a private in 2 Infantry Battalion AIF.

He joined the Battalion on Gallipoli and served with it until the evacuation. In 1916, he was posted to 5 Pioneer Battalion, and served with it for the remainder of the war, rising to the rank of Warrant Officer. Jurd was decorated three times in 1918, receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. He returned to Australia in February 1919, and was discharged medically unfit due to a gun shot wound to his right leg, suffered at Bellicourt. Frederick Jurd died in Sydney in 1939.

Oval aluminium identity disc with brown leather strap threaded through holes in each side.

The disc is stamped 'H.F.B.SMITH/4872/C.E/50 BATT.A.I.F'.

Worn by 4872 Private Harold Frederick B Smith of 50 Battalion. Private Smith enlisted on 6 January 1916 and returned to Australia on 1 August 1919.

German & Austrian Dog Tags

This is a WW2 German dog tag.

3rd Company ,infantry training and Replacement Battalion 487. Roll number 829. Blood group A.

Note that although it is in 1 piece the top and bottom sections carry the same information and the disk is slotted to allow for the bottom section to be easily snapped off.

This gives the same effect as having 2 disks with the resultant saving on the cost of making 1 not 2.