The Story of the Double Dog Tag

Through Messer, Ware reminded Macready that he had previously proposed a similar scheme which had been rejected as there ‘were serious reasons for doubting if British soldiers would adapt themselves to the system’. However, as it had been found to ‘work satisfactorily in the French Army’, it was hoped that the idea might be considered once again as ‘the number of graves which are unknown owing to this cause is very considerable’. Ware also consulted the armies on the matter, with all replying in favour of a new duplicate disc scheme.

As a result of Ware’s consultation, it was decided that the French system of two discs, with one worn around the neck and one worn upon the wrist, would ‘not be suitable’ for the British Army, as where the French had been able to rapidly supply the second disc to men in the field.

Ware sketched a design for a two-disc system, which included a new octagonal, green disc, worn suspended from the original red disc by a short piece of cord. The lower disc would be removed ‘for the purpose of evidence of death’ and the original upper disc would remain on the body to be removed at the time of burial when a grave marker would be placed to help to ensure that the soldier was identifiable in the future.

The shape of the new disc, and the additional holes punched into the existing round disc would allow any searcher to feel the disc in times when vision was limited, to ascertain whether the death was recent or if it was an older disc.

Scheme for Duplicate Identity Discs (undated), CWGC/1/1/1/34/18 Directorate Of Graves Registration And Enquiries: File 18 - Scheme for duplicate identity discs (SDC4)

The scheme was approved on the 24th June 1916, and four million green discs were ordered, to be fitted with cord by the contractor. All orders for new red discs were to be amended to feature the additional hole at the base of the disc, and existing red discs in stores were to be perforated in the same way.

The double identity disc scheme was announced to soldiers in an Army Order on 24th August 1916. The order described the discs which each officer and soldier would be supplied with ‘in future’. The drawing of the discs features the same discs depicted in the original design; however, the location of the discs had been reversed. There are no surviving documents which confirm the reason for this change, but from the information given in Major Courage’s letter to Ware, we can presume that this switch removed the requirement to punch an additional hole in the existing red disc which would save both time and money, allowing the discs to reach soldiers in a more timely manner.

By September, soldiers were instructed that in the case of the death of a soldier or an officer, the lower red disc should be removed, though the upper green disc was not to be removed and should be buried with the body. Where a body could be reached and identified, but not buried at the time, the lower red disc was still to be removed ‘to ensure proper notification of death’, with the upper green disc remaining ‘as a safeguard against loss of identity’ in the future when burial might be possible.

Despite this warning, it would be months before the new discs were ready for dispatch. On 12th November 1916, Ware wrote again to Macready asking if there was anything that could be done to ‘expedite the issue of the new double identity discs to troops in the fighting line’, reiterating the large numbers of unidentifiable dead found in recent months due to ‘the want of the second disc’.

Ware received a reply a few days later, stating that 200,000 new discs had arrived in France and were being distributed at a rate of 50,000 a week. By the 1st December it was reported that 1,067,000 new discs had been issued to France, with a further 690,000 owed. It was expected that the order would be fulfilled within a further four weeks.

CWGC archival documents allow us to witness the speedy design process of a new piece of kit in the British Army, with Ware acting as a facilitator on behalf of the Armies in order to initiate change. This resulted in the creation of one of the most iconic pieces of military kit, recognised by even those with little knowledge about the war.

In the Spring of 1920, the Imperial War Graves Commission would come to the conclusion that the fibre identity discs had ‘not proved satisfactory’ as the discs had turned to pulp when exposed to the elements or left upon a decomposing body.[1] Despite this knowledge, the 1916 double identity disc was used until long after the conclusion of World War 2, with no recorded efforts to improve the disc material.

Learn more about the development and failures of British identity discs used between 1907-1918 by reading Sarah’s latest work in the British Journal for Military History, ‘Military Identification: Identity Discs and the Identification of British War Dead, 1914-18’.