Is this a First World War identity disc?
QThis photograph shows the front face of what is believed to be a First World War identity disc. It was found in the garden of a house in Walthamstow during the 1930s. The disc measures 3.56cm in diameter and is 0.5mm thick. It is made of a metal with the appearance of stainless steel, but is non-magnetic.
The circumferential inscription stamped on the disc reads “22003422” and “EDERMANICER”, with “METH” in the centre. The stamping is irregular and looks as if it was made by an unpractised hand.
Can you tell me where the disc came from and who it belonged to? If possible, I would like to return it to the original owner’s descendants. Len Street OBE
AWhile this does superficially look like a military identity disc (sometimes called a ‘dog tag’), I very much doubt that it is one.
“Edermanicer” is probably “Edermaniger”, and checking the medal index cards database at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk shows that four men with this surname served and received British medals during the First World War. There are also military records for Edermanigers on ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk, as well as civil records such as censuses, which suggests that the family clustered around East and North London. “METH” in the centre is short for “Methodist”, and religious denominations have been known to appear on military discs. However, First World War soldiers were numbered as part of regiments, so I would expect the name of one to appear here. It wasn’t until after the war that soldiers were given absolutely unique numbers, beginning with ‘1’ and going up in sequence. By the mid-1970s the figure had reached 24,000,000, but the number on the disc is already 22,003,442 and we know it was found before the Second World War. Looking at foreign discs suggests that the same objections apply. German ones certainly had a regiment on them. American ones were circular but, again, the number on this object seems too high. I can only suggest that a member of the Edermaniger family might have an idea. Phil Tomaselli