Discharged Returned Soldier Badge: Sapper C G Blunt, 12 Field Company Engineers, AIF

Circular brass badge surmounted by a King's crown. In the centre is the AIF rising sun emblem surrounded by the text 'ISSUED BY DEPT. OF DEFENCE RETURNED FROM ACTIVE SERVICE'. The reverse has been impressed with the number '162342'. The name 'BLUNT' is crudely scratched into the back.

This badge was issued to all soldiers and nurses who returned to Australia from active service and were discharged.This example was issued to 16171 Sapper Cecil George Blunt. Blunt was born in Chiswick, NSW and was an engineering apprentice with a Brisbane firm when he enlisted in the AIF on 5 October 1916, aged 23. He embarked for overseas service with the Field Company Engineers (FCE) Reinforcements on 11 November that year and arrived in France, after training in England, in April 1917. He was taken on strength into 12 FCE that month and served out the rest of the war with that unit on the Western Front. He embarked for return to Australia in England on 15 June 1919 and was discharged on 10 September.