Badges of Rank
The badges were awarded for recruiting new members to the cause, they could not be purchased.
To become a Blaster 25 members were needed to be recruited
Tornado - 100 members
Monsoon - 500 members
Grand Typhoon - 1000 members - these were gold cufflinks, or a gold cufflink badge.
Blaster Badge Tornado badge Monsoon badge
Silver with blue enameling Silver with red and blue enameling Silver with amber and blue enameling
Picture courtesy of Brian Kilimister Picture courtesy of Steve Gane Picture courtesy of Robert Easter
Early Blaster and Tornado badges of Rank were enamel on solid silver - later badges were EPNS silver plate on brass, the materials used for the monsoon badges are not confirmed, but to date, only silver have been seen .
Click here for a hi-res version 160kb
High ranking members had their badges displayed on a medal bar, although these were smaller in size than singular badges.
Badge Bar of Monsoon W.O.
Hilderley
Comparison of badge bar to badges
Pictures courtesy of Steve Gane
Mac Savage Medal Bar in original Box ( shown actual size )
Mac Savage was a life long friend of Bert Temple's, and oversaw the Aquarius Vat in London. The Aquarius was the Vat of the Metropolitan Water Board in Rosebery Avenue, interestingly they provided 75% of the original first 200 memberships of the AOFB.
The badges were manufactured by the Birmingham Medal company who also offered to have them "welded" on to the AOFB silver plated tankards for a charge of 1/- ( one shilling , 12 old pence { 5 new pence} ) provided the person had attained that rank.
