I've shared one of my button jars before--I have several, belonging previously to various relatives. A few shiny buttons stood out to me as being military, and me being me, I wanted to find out if I could guess who they belonged to.
These are the top row, they are what is known as "collar discs". The first one is a domed disc with Ballou clutches on the reverse. The other two are flat, un-bordered, and have Ballou clutches on the reverse, one generic US in block letters, one a caduceus. This fantastic website helped me guess that these were Type V (5) collars discs and issued between 1942 and 1970. The researcher suggests that the domed option was one that the soldier could purchase, different from the standard-issue flat discs.
My guess for the Medic's discs is my great-uncle Lawrence D Arnold. From a letter from my Grandmother, (yay, primary sources) she says "Yes I had a
brother in WW2 but he was too young to be in active war, he was in
occupied Japan and he was a medic rate". He would only have been 17 in 1945, so joining up after the active hostilities had ceased makes sense. I cannot find his military record, and do not want to submit an official request currently because they are still so backed up from their covid employment shortages, so I have to rely on other sources. The crossed rifles for infantry is still a mystery.
This pin has a screw back and is quite large, 1.5" across or so. It is supposedly the insignia or device for an enlisted soldier's cover (aka "hat"). However, there the clarity ceases. The screw back seems to suggest first World War era, though they appear to show up on some more recent devices in some cases. There is an entire book dedicated to the subtle changes in hat devices in the history of the Army, but at $60 for the ebook version, I can't swing it! However, if you go to this page, it has 4 pages of previews, and I think you can actually see this device as an example on the 4th sample (page 143) that looks very similar! I can just barely make out the text at the top of the page suggesting that the horizontal lines took the place of the diagonal texture, but not the lower part where a time period or other source might be found! Many of the first world war and post-war era devices have textured grounds, but they have cross-hatching or cross-hatches with dots in the gaps. This one has horizontal lines. The only one I can easily find online that looks the same is this ebay listing, though I do not trust ebay sellers to have historically accurate notes on their items unless they back it up in some way.
Now, for items like this, it could have come to be in the button jar any number of ways: a flea market find, a gift, a family item, etc, so I am not 100% certain that I can connect this to a family member. But it is nice to make the attempt!
One family member I am certain had a role in WW1 was my great-great grandfather, Archie A Arnold. Despite being an American citizen by birth, he served with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces as, at the time, he lived in Saskatoon.
I believe he is on the left here. This little button was also in the jar, and I think its a treasure.
It is very small, about an inch across, and has an image of the Royal Coat of arms. This is a General Service button! After 1902, all service members in England and Canada had this on their uniforms, with a few special exceptions. This particular one was made at Smith and Wright Ltd of Birmingham. Based on the maker's mark, the oldest it could be is 1890. I'd like to think this was on of Archie's buttons!
From the first photo, I have guessed that buttons 6 and 7 are modern reproductions, one is a repro Hessian button ("Spes Nostra es Devs") and the other looks like a more modern decorative button.
