Fovant Badges - Fovant, Wiltshire - World War I Memorials and Monuments on Waymarking.com

"The monument includes a series of chalk badges cut into the northern slopes of Fovant Down overlooking the Shaftesbury to Salisbury road and the village of Fovant. The badges, nine of which are readily visible today, were begun by troops stationed in and around Fovant during World War I. They were constructed by excavating a series of shallow bedding trenches into which clean chalk rubble was inserted and compressed into place. The first badge believed to have been cut was that of the London Rifle Brigade in 1916, the 5th Battalion of which is known to have been undergoing training at Fovant between January and May of that year. The badges of the 6th City of London Battalion, the London Regiment, colloquially known as the `Cast-iron Sixth' and the 8th City of London Battalion, the London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) were also cut around this time. In addition, documentary sources also suggest that the badges of the 9th County of London Battalion, the London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles) and the Army Service Corps may also have been cut, although neither are now visible. Initially present during August 1916 and March 1917, soldiers belonging to the Australian Imperial Force, Australia's expeditionary force, took over many of the camps around Fovant from October 1917 until after the Armistice, when the camps were used as dispersal centres. During their time at Fovant the Australians cut the so-called `Rising Sun', the General Service badge adopted by the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces from 1911 onwards. Two further badges known to have been cut on Fovant Down during World War I which are still visible today are those of the Devonshire Regiment and the Young Men's Christian Association. By the outbreak of World War II some badges had deteriorated almost to the point of invisibility and deliberate efforts were made during the war to camouflage those remaining to prevent them being used by the Luftwaffe for navigational purposes. Between 1948 and 1951 members of the Fovant Home Guard Old Comrades Association carried out a restoration of some of the badges, and to commemorate their own service cut the badges of the Wiltshire Regiment (which had been their parent body during World War II) and the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry badge was placed in an area formerly occupied by that of the Royal Army Medical Corps which documentary sources show was still visible up to World War II. During the period 1969 to 1970 the badge of the Royal Corps of Signals was cut to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Corp's foundation. Both the Royal Corps of Signals and the Wiltshire Regiment badges were cut in the vicinity of the area formerly occupied by a Kangaroo motif, again still visible prior to World War II. The same documentary source records that at least three further badges or motifs were visible on Fovant Down prior to World War II, including a drum with the word `drum', a vague shape with four initial letters, and a device which appeared originally to have included a circle. Of this latter group, only the circle is now apparent, and is situated immediately south west of the Devonshire Regiment badge. A further series of contemporary badges and motifs on Compton and Sutton Downs are the subject of separate schedulings. All fences are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included."

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Fovant Badge: Post Office Rifles - (visit link)

Private or Public Monument?: Other Name of the Private Organization or Government Entity that built this Monument: Not known Geographic Region where the Monument is located: Europe Website for this Monument: [Web Link] Physical Address of Monument: on the hillside off the A30 Fovant, Wiltshire England SP3 5JE Rate this waymark: Photo or photos will be uploaded.: yes Date the Monument or Memorial was built or dedicated: Not listed

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