At the end of a long and frustrating day with few finds, Yanne uncovered this small but remarkable badge in Dunsfold, Surrey. It is a bronze mufti lapel badge of the Veteran Reserve, County of Surrey, complete with screw and nut fitting on the reverse. The design is registered with the impressed number REG No 570574, dating to 1910, just a few years before the outbreak of the First World War.
The Veteran Reserve (originally called the National Reserve) was formed in the years leading up to the war as a home defence organisation for ex-soldiers who had previously served in the army. With the outbreak of conflict in 1914, men wearing badges like this one took on vital roles at home: guarding infrastructure, supporting recruitment and, in some cases, returning to active service when the need became desperate.
In Surrey, where camps such as the Tadworth military training camp, trained tens of thousands of men for the front, the Veteran Reserve offered a visible reminder of duty and sacrifice on the home front. Though modest in size, this badge links directly to those who had already served their country and who, even in later years, stood ready once more in Britain’s hour of need.