The Veterans Badge.

The veterans badge is an entitlement of ALL UK ex-servicemen and women, for however long their service was and whatever rank achieved. If you served you have an entitlement to one. Martin felt it appropriate to include this information, just in case there are any members who haven’t yet acquired one, or haven’t even heard of them.

Below is an excerpt from the original Veterans UK release:

For generations our Armed Forces have served their country across the world in many roles from war fighting, peacekeeping and reconstruction to home defence. In so doing,they have defended our country, our way of life and our cherished values. A large number of our veterans are young and active and now use the skills, the discipline and the leadership qualities they learned in the Armed Forces to benefit their civilian employers and the wider community. The Ministry of Defence Strategy for Veterans highlights that because of all this it is important to focus on supporting veterans of all ages, by celebrating, and raising public awareness of, their achievements and their contribution to society. To promote recognition of veterans by the wider British public the unique and unifying symbol of the HM Armed Forces Veterans Badge was introduced.

The UK Armed Forces Veterans’ Lapel Badge was launched in May 2004 by the Minister of Veterans, to raise the profile of veterans by assisting the wider public to recognise them. The first veterans badge was issued to Lord Healy, a veteran of the Battle for Monte Cassino, on 10 May 2004, which initiated the roll out of the badge to the Second World War veteran generation. Since then eligibility to apply for the badge has been extended in sequential phases to all veterans. This has now closed the gap between those who apply for their badge and those who receive it automatically on