The outbreak of the Great War in 1914 fully occupied the Admiralty with other matters 'for the duration' but, in 1917, a letter was written which was to have far reaching effects.

It was decided in 1916 to establish a Museum of the Great War which would relate  to future generations the enormous struggle of the whole British Empire to defeat the armed forces of the Kaiser and the terrible sacrifice that this defeat would demand. It was intended to display captured German munitions in London, to help boost civilian morale. A part-time curator of the Tower Armoury, who was an acknowledged experts in weapons and firearms through the ages, was invited to participate in the project, and he accepted.

This man was Sub. Lt. Charles ffoulkes,  R.N.V.R., who had an intense interest in militaria and a sound knowledge of Medieval Heraldry. With others, he set about forming a collection of artefacts for the new museum which was initially called the National War Museum. One area of interest to him was ships' badges, and he started to assemble a collection of these, which were obtained from various sources and involved him in  much correspondence with shipyards, dockyards and Admiralty officials. He resigned his commission on 7th March 1916 to  enable him to devote more time to the museum.

Building in the Teeside yard of Messrs Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson in 1917 was a modified 'R' Class destroyer to be named H.M.S. Tower. The Commanding Officer designate, L. Harold Joyce D.S.C., R.N. wanted a badge designed for the new ship, and at the suggestion of Mr. George Richardson, one of the directors of Swan Hunters, he wrote to Mr. ffoulkes requesting assistance with a design for a badge. This was the letter that indirectly set the wheels in motion to establish the long-desired system of Official badges.

Mr. ffoulkes was very interested in Lt. Joyce's request and supplied him with a design which was cast in Swan Hunter's yard. This badge, which can rightly be consider the fore-runner of all Official Royal Navy ship badges, is still in existence today, and is in the Imperial War Museum's collection

The design so impressed Swan Hunter, that Mr. Richardson, who also had an interest in ship's badges, wrote to Mr. ffoulkes to ask him if he would be interested in designing other badges for ships building, or planned in the Swan Hunter 'yard'. Mr. ffoulkes readily acceded to this request and the two men formed a firm friendship, based on their common interest. In addition to the badge for H.M.S. Tower he designed for Swan Hunter badges for H.M.S. Tintagel, Sportive, Whitsed, Wild Swan, Whitehall, Willoughby, Violent, Vittoria, Stalwart and Winter. The high quality of this work became known by other shipbuilders and he designed for Beardmore (H.M.S. Tara) and Thorneycroft (H.M.S. Spencer, Wallace and Swordsman).

NEXT >>>