Embroidered badge highlights the 27th Battalion’s battles during WWI

Handmade badge gifted to the City on display at the Archives

While searching though storage one day, City of Winnipeg Senior Archivist Sarah Ramsden stumbled across a framed embroidered badge of the 27th Battalion that caught her attention.

Mobilized in 1914, the Battalion received special permission from the City to be called the City of Winnipeg Battalion and used the City’s former coat of arms in the design of its badge.

 “I started asking questions but none of the staff knew where it came from or who created it,” she said.

 It was in a file found in the Committee on Finance series that shed light on the piece’s past. The embroidered badge was created by a man named Herbert H. Clark. He was a Winnipeg-based solider who served with the 27th Battalion during the First World War.

Picture of Herbert H. Clark when he came to Winnipeg from England and worked at the Eaton's Department Store before enlisting in the First World War on October 27, 1914.
Herbert H. Clark came to Winnipeg from England and worked at the Eaton's Department Store before enlisting in the First World War on October 27, 1914.

 

 “After nearly two years in France he was hospitalized with tuberculosis and sleeping sickness,” said Ramsden. “While recovering in Basingstoke England, he learned embroidery and created this work.”

In addition to the badge, the piece is also embroidered with the names of the battles the 27th Battalion fought in as well as the years of the war. It is framed with a button on each corner and a maple leaf cap badge on the top.

“The buttons are actually from his uniform and the cap badge would have been on his hat,” said Ramsden.

Clark would end up gifting the piece in 1960 to then-Mayor Stephen Juba. A letter Clark wrote to the then-mayor was found in the file

Ramsden said the piece is among her favourites in the City’s collection.

“As a city, we don’t want to lose these stories and I’d like to think of the Archives as a site of remembrance and the creation, preservation and sharing of this history as acts of commemoration,” she said. “Through these acts and the telling of these stories we remember Herbert Clark and other veterans who sacrificed their health, their well-being, and so much more.”

The piece is on display at the Archives building at 50 Myrtle St. for the public to view weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Was this information helpful?

How can we make this web page better?

Information collected will be used to improve our website. Do not use this form to submit a request for service or information because it will not be forwarded to departments for response. To submit a request for service or information, contact 311.

This form is not intended to collect personal information; however, any personal information you choose to include in your comments is collected by the City of Winnipeg under the authority of section 36(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act for the purpose of improving our website and will not be used or disclosed for any other purposes, except as authorized by law. Contact the Corporate Access and Privacy Officer by mail (City Clerk’s Department, Susan A. Thompson Building, 510 Main Street, Winnipeg MB, R3B 1B9) or by telephone (311) if you have any questions about the collection of this information.