Identity disc medal

Identity discs, each one bearing the unique service number of a soldier, are some of the most recognisable artefacts from the Great War. This one belonged to 22-year-old Taranaki man Morris Connington Brown. The zinc disc was sent back to Morris Brown's family after he was killed in action on Gallipoli on 2 May 1915 and buried in Lone Pine Cemetery.

Personal mementoes

During World War I, identity discs became special mementoes for bereaved families. They were often in the personal effects that the army tried to send back to next of kin as quickly as they could. According to the lists in a register of dead soldiers' effects, held at Archives New Zealand, Morris's disc, as well as a cross and photos, were sent back to his family in New Plymouth on 6 August 1915. Sometime after that, the small paua cross was added to the disc.

Unique numbers

The sequence of six or seven numbers stamped onto official discs were inseparable from a soldier himself. Service numbers helped military authorities keep track of the vast armies mobilised to fight and administer the war. At the start of the war, the first one or two digits in a service number followed by a forward slash or bar indicated a person's specific unit. For the first two years, each soldier was given just one circular disc, made from zinc. In 1916, however, an Army Order made it compulsory for soldiers to wear two discs at all times - an octagonal green one and a circular red one. One reason for this was to assist with the identification and burial of the dead.