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[Scalyback]

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Welcome to this month's high brow, mind enriching, brain numbing article.


BADGES - 2

This time, we go look at some of the R.E. related products of the Butler company of 48 Vittoria street, Birmingham.



It seems that R.E. had a good relationship with Butler's, as whenever examining an old R.E. badge nowadays, It is almost expected to see "BUTLER B'HAM" on the reverse (Posh coin collectors word for 'back'), but let's get into the meat of the topic, by showing a series of similar badges.








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[center]The Bicycle badge
[center]They all say 'BUTLER B'HAM' (Birmingham)



We can see the beautiful shade of green enamelling. For a Bicycle fan, this would be a nice example.
This particular badge went on ebay for rather more than I expected.







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[center]Oh, just to touch it!




[center]The pin clasp is a little bit bent




This is the matching Motorcycle badge, and this went for £68 on ebay.
Somebody obviously wanted it, and again, a fine example








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[center]This one's mine... all mine!
[center]They measure 20 by 30 mm





This is the badge that featured in the first post, where R.E. were promoting the 'Safety First' campaign, which was aimed at cyclists as well as vehicle drivers. This campaign matured into the RoSPA Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which exists to this day. The red triangle is familiar as appearing in their cycling proficiency badge.

This completes this trio, unless of course; you know different!.










Now, This next one is rather intriguing!



What and where was the Royal Enfield Gun Club? Was there even such an organisation?


Firstly, we will just round up any problems about precisely who "Royal Enfield' refers too.
As the badge is gun related, you might think it could be something to do with the Royal Small Arms factory at Enfield, London. Well, small arms, guns, Enfield, all could point that way... but no.

The name Royal Enfield was granted by the crown to the Enfield cycle company, and therefore, could not be used by any person or company other than them.






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[center]Royal Enfield Gun Club
[center]It really does say BUTLER B'HAM




Having marvelled at the poor quality of the photos, we now try to uncover the gun club.







Oh look! The Enfield (Later Royal Enfield) Club House. Opened in 1897, was described as a real resort for the workmen. it consisted of a mess room, reading rooms, billiard room, baths, atheletics equiptment and every inducement towards pleasant evenings for the men.





SO... We know they had a nice club (wherever it actually was!). But did they go around banging off guns and things?


 
Now we turn our attention to 'A Proud War Record'. This is the extremely good book that R.E. put out after WWII, showing not only what they had produced, but also a lot about the company and how it worked. For those of you who would like to study the 48 page book, it is available as a PDF file and can be downloaded from the Barnstormers.nz site, using the link below.



A Proud War Record







One of the sections entitled "Recreation and Welfare" has a paragraph which states, "Facilities are provided for every kind of recreation, for good health is one of the main factors of efficient production. The activities include Football, Hockey, Cricket, Lawn Tennis, Bowling, Athletics, Swimming, Fishing and Rifle Shooting.



This leads to a wild and possibly inaccurate (but I'm sticking with it!) idea that the rifle shooting could have been a club. Normally, a rifle club would be called just that, but with the companies' trade mark and slogans concerning their 'gun' would it not be possible, in fact; even likely, that the rifle people would of course called it the 'Gun Club', i.e. the 'Royal Enfield Gun Club'?



So there we are. An interesting badge that may one day, receive confirmation that the above is correct!



(Of course, the gun club may have consisted of people running around the fields with big cannons!)








"Somewhere, there's another bullet with my name on it!"


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[wilf]

Just a thought, but gun club to me means shotgun as distinct to rifle. Therefore more likely to relate to game/ vermin shooting.probably a bit early for clay targets.

[Scalyback]

It's possible, but as above, it could have been called a gun club, because of the association with their trade mark.


There again, it might have nothing to do with shooting at all...



It might have been some 'savings for the war effort, or something totally unrelated, with the members using the trademark as a name for the club.



A bit like the 'pudding club' which does not serve dessert!

[zippy]

It might very well be a gun club badge, even associated with the Enfield Club House, or the factory itself. Prior to WWI and after, many pubs and clubs had a rifle team, Shooting low powered spring rifles at a cast iron and brass bell target., the face of which was whitewashed to show the pellet strikes. The bullseye was drilled out so dead centre shots would pass right through tripping the bell mechanism. Some clubs were shooting microbore bulleted cap rifles, the ammo for which was roughly.177 calibre and mounted onto what was effectively a starter pistol cap with a copper case.There would be inter-pub contests - much like we have with pool/snooker nowadays.I had one of the bulleted cap rifles some years ago. It came from the cellar of one of the local pubs, where it had probably been for the last 80 - 100 yrs. Some "so-and-so" nicked it from my workshop while it was being restored.

[Scalyback]

Thanks for that info Zippy,



What a bugger someone stole the rifle, would have been quite a talking point.



Did you get a picture of it?

[zippy]

I or one of my friends should have 1 somewhere.... Also I have the black painted papier mache butt cap (H, or one of my matesad songbirds in a tree embossed into it) and some of the trigger mechanism somewhere....

[zippy]

It's scrambled! :O Should read :- I or one of my friends should have 1 somewhere.... Also I have the black painted papier mache butt cap (Had songbirds in a tree embossed into it) and some of the trigger mechanism somewhere....

[Scalyback]

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Finally, some decent pics of the gun club badge.











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Throughout WWII, RE's advertising usually carried a version of their standard gun trademark as above, But let's compare the badge with the two pics below, taken from RE's advertising.




January 1945


February 1945


So both from early 1945.



Intriguing!







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