Ken Sequin’s Badge Collection
From hundreds in his magnificent collection, Ken Sequin kindly selected badges for me with a local connection – and they comprise an unexpected history of the East End.
Button badges were invented in 1896, when Benjamin Whitehead of Whitehead & Hoag in New York filed a patent for a celluloid-covered metal badge, swiftly opening offices in London, Toronto & Sydney as the craze went global.
Adopted first as a means of advertising by tobacco companies, button badges were quickly exploited for political, religious and fund-raising purposes by all kinds of clubs and organisations.
Kingsland Rd Costermongers Association manufactured by E. Simons, late nineteenth century – one of the rarest badges, possibly a unique survivor
Souvenir of Dirty Dick’s in Bishopsgate, twenties or thirties
St John at Hackney Parochial School founded in 1275 is one of the oldest in the country, early twentieth century
Woolwich Arsenal Football Club, 1907
Hackney Band Club, hat badge c1873, one of the most radical Working Men’s Clubs
Boer War, 1900 – one of the very earliest button badges in this country
Reverse of previous badge, note local manufacturer
Royal Eye Hospital, Moorfields – early twentieth century
Lea Bridge Speedway Supporters’ Club – 1928-32
Dartford Pageant, 1932
Possibly the Regal Edmonton, 1934
Bethnal Green Men’s Institute, Gymnastics, Turin St, early twentieth century
Temperance and Salvation Army buttons, early twentieth century
Dockers Trade Union Badge, established 1889
A cache of badges found in an allotment shed in Walthamstow
World War II propaganda badges
Salvage. Dulwich Council
St George’s Sunday School, Weslyan Mission House, in the eighteen-nineties it took over Wilton’s Music Hall
Reverse of previous badge
WWII National Air Raid Precautions Animals Committee, dog’s identity badge
World War II badges for fundraising clubs to build airplanes
WWII Fundraising club to buy a destroyer
First Labour Mayor of Poplar, Will Crooks was elected MP for Woolwich in 1902
Reverse of buttons above
Dulwich & District Defence League, a Home Front battalion established in 1915
The Mildmay Hospital in Shoreditch was named after Francis Bingham Mildmay in 1890
Early twentieth century silver badge rewarding service in hospital ‘meals on wheels’ service
Barnado’s Young Helpers’ Badge with a portrait of the founder, early twentieth century
Tilbury Seamen’s Hospital, ‘For services rendered’ – possibly thirties
John Groom’s Crippleage & Flower Girls Mission, fund-raising rosettes, c 1900
Photographs copyright © Ken Sequin
You might also like to take a look at
John Gillman’s Bus Ticket Collection
Viscountess Boudica’s Domestic Appliances
Libby Hall’s Dog Photography Collection
Clive Murphy’s Matchbox Label Collection
I love these badges some are simple statements of the different ideas ,attitudes and interests that were shared by millions in times past. I remember there was a craze at primary school when we made our own from bottle tops and the cork inners and covered our pullovers with them but they were not statements but just bottle tops. Fortunately for the schools they stopped making the cork inner bit so it died out ! Thank you for sharing them with us
Wonderful collection, with so much history attached! Particularly like the aircraft badges. Ken Sequin was a visiting tutor at my art college years ago btw.
It’s possible that the Mildmay Chums badge may refer to the Mildmay Club at Newington Green. See the club website at http://mildmay.club/wwi-commemoration-at-the-mildmay/ for a description of last November’s remembrance of the Chums who fought in the First World War.
Another great article. My Great Grandfather was a costermonger for a while in Hackney & Kingsland – I wonder if he ever had one of these badges.
Vote for Crooks. Indeed.
Wonderful to see these beautiful designs.
Oh my word. Wonderful!
Yup – another fascinating blog giving an insight into people’s concerns in past times…
I particularly like the Temperance badge with the strong drink dragon being overcome by the sober and upright citizens!
Love a badge!!! Still do!
If ever I joined somthing as a kid I eould say…. “Do you get a badge?!”
I loved the oldest one… My family were living there then.
Thank you
Mark B
Just one more! (dislexic… sorry about spellings)
My dad smuggled me in to Dirty Dicks around 1971.. I made a sticky stick up cup thing from a cigeret packet…. pull out the silver papper, pop the tissue paper in your mouth, chew it and get it all wet.
Make a cup at one end and a flat kind of flyet at the outher…. then… fling it on the sealing!
“Smack” They were stuck all over the place!
Great pub… I think “Food Highjean” standards made them clean it up..but what a pub….
The old petrifide cat skelington is still there hopfully.
Fascinating, especially the Walthamstow ones as I was born and raised there.
“vote for Crooks”!! do we have any choice in the matter?
I love the badges. Yes, the Mildmay Chums very likely refers to the Mildmay Radical Club on Newington Green – now the Mildmay Club and still going strong. In a room off the bar there’s aboard listing the Mildmay Chums, about sixty of them among them several who never came back from the Western Front.