identity disc
Report a Mistake- Object Number 19760076-017
- Event 1914-1919 First World War
- Affiliation --
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer --
- Date Made --
- Place of Use Continent - North America, Country - Canada
- Category Communication artifacts
- Sub-category Personal symbol
- Department Dress and Insignia
- Museum CWM
- Inscription (obverse/avers): S/Sergt W Stewart, 536082, 8th Canadian F. Ambulance
- Materials Brass
- Branch Canadian Army Medical Corps
- Service Component Canadian Expeditionary Force
- Unit No 8 Field Ambulance
- Measurements Length 3.9 cm, Width 2.9 cm, Thickness 0.1 cm
- Caption Identifying the Dead
- Additional Information Soldiers carried and wore both official and unofficial identification tags to identify them in the event of death. During the 1916 Battle of the Somme, Canadian soldiers received the double-set of identification tags: green to be left on the body, red to be passed through unit headquarters and to the grave registration teams. Some soldiers refused to wear identification tags, fearing they might somehow encourage or portend death.