Sweetheart Brooches of Both World Wars: How to Identify a Regimental Sweetheart Brooch

Get a free valuation

What is a sweetheart brooch?

A sweetheart brooch is a miniature regimental, naval or air service badge worn as a brooch by the women in a serviceman's family. The name is loose: mothers, wives and sisters wore them as well as sweethearts.

The first known example is a gold, diamond and enamel copy of the 10th Royal Hussars' insignia. The Earl of Airlie commissioned it for his wife Mabell on their wedding day, 19 January 1886. By the middle of 1914 a brooch was made for every regiment of the British Army, the Royal Flying Corps and the Navy.

Some were made by fine jewellers in gold or silver, set with diamonds or other stones. Most were mass-produced in Birmingham and London in brass, enamel or mother of pearl. Many were sold in small shops in army camps, where a soldier could buy one before leaving for the front.

Women wore them for luck, or to show that someone in the family was serving. When a man did not come home, the brooch often went into a drawer. In 1939 Mass Observation found sales of gold and diamond “sweetheart badge brooches” rising again in London shops.

Sweetheart brooches belong to the same family of remembrance jewellery as our mourning jewellery guide. Remembrance Sunday falls on 8 November 2026 and Armistice Day on 11 November, when many families take these brooches out again.

Sources: History Workshop, Radical Objects, 2018; Royal Welsh Museum; IWM; Bucks Military Museum Trust; Tank Museum.

The register: every service and how to recognise its badge

The badge on the front names the unit. The register below lists 79 British and Commonwealth services, what their badge looks like on a brooch, which war it fits and how to tell it from a look-alike.

Find the emblem first, then read the motto and the title scroll. Brooches copy the cap badge, so a brooch with an unusual setting still carries the same emblem. Each row links its source: the National Army Museum and Auckland War Memorial Museum collection records, regimental museums and Wikipedia.

Sources: each row links its own source. Compiled by Mozeris Fine Antiques, October 2026. Corrections are welcome through our contact page.

Read the back: hallmarks, maker's marks and pins

The back of a sweetheart brooch tells you the metal, the maker and, if it is hallmarked, the year. Turn it over and look along the frame and the pin.

1. PinA plain pin across the back. The pin, hinge and catch are often replaced in repair.
2. HingeA small tube or block soldered to the frame.
3. CatchA simple open hook (a C-catch) or a later rotating safety catch.
4. HallmarkLion for sterling silver, the town mark (an anchor for Birmingham) and a date letter: q here is 1915 to 1916.
5. Maker's markInitials in a shaped punch, such as MB for Marshall Brothers of Birmingham.
6. Metal stampSTERLING, ST. SIL., SILVER or 9CT stamped by the maker. A stamp is not an assay office hallmark: it gives no town and no year.
7. EngravingInitials, a date or a service number. One New Zealand brooch is engraved 6-3-16 and J.E.M. on the back.
8. Safety chainA short chain with a small pin, so the brooch is not lost if the main pin opens.

A full British hallmark has the lion for sterling silver, the town mark and a date letter. Birmingham's town mark is an anchor, and its date letter changes each July. The Imperial War Museum finds 1915 the most common year on hallmarked First World War brooches.

Our Birmingham Assay Office guide and how to read silver hallmarks explain the marks in full, and hallmarks and maker's marks explains the difference between them.

Sources: Birmingham Assay Office; IWM; Auckland Museum (engraving); Auckland Museum (safety chain); Auckland Museum (9CT and ST. SIL.); Portable Antiquities Scheme.

First or Second World War? Six tells

Production of sweetheart brooches peaked in the First World War and revived in the Second, and many designs did not change. Six tells, used together, usually settle which war a brooch belongs to.

When a regiment served in both wars and kept the same badge, the brooch itself may not say which war. Then the hallmark, the family papers and any engraving decide it.

Look-alike badges: how to tell them apart

Many regiments share a motto or an emblem, so a single feature is not enough. Read the centre of the badge, the motto and the title scroll together.

Brooch or converted cap badge?

Soldiers often turned collar badges, buttons and cap badges into keepsakes, and army orders were issued to stop it. A cap badge has a slider or lugs on the back. A brooch has a pin and catch. A badge with a slider removed and a pin added is a converted badge, not a purpose-made brooch.

Sources: History Workshop; militaria.co.uk; NAM, Calcutta Light Horse brooch possibly converted from a cap badge.

Materials: silver, gold, mother of pearl, enamel and more

Sweetheart brooches were made at every price, from brass and paste to gold, platinum and diamonds. The material is the first clue to how the brooch was bought.

• Silver. Usually hallmarked, or stamped STERLING, ST. SIL. or SILVER. Often with blue, red or green enamel.
• Gold. 9ct and 15ct are recorded, sometimes with gold letters sweated onto a silver frame.
• Mother of pearl. A pearl disc with a small enamel badge, or a metal frame on a pearl back. Made in Birmingham and elsewhere in England, and carved in Bethlehem from late 1917.
• Enamel. Coloured enamel on brass, silver or gold, for the crown, the scrolls and the ground. Our enamelling techniques guide explains how it is made.
• Brass, gilt and nickel. The cheaper brooches, often bar brooches.
• Tortoiseshell. Recorded in 9ct gold and tortoiseshell on Royal Dublin Fusiliers brooches.
• Diamonds and platinum. At the top of the range, including diamond-set platinum.
• Marcasite and paste. Marcasite on an Asprey officer's brooch; paste on cheaper pieces.

A Second World War gold brooch in Auckland frames a photograph of a soldier behind a clear Perspex back.

Sources: Tank Museum; RDF Association; AWM; Royal Welsh Museum; History Workshop; Auckland Museum; Auckland Museum.

Trench art and place brooches

Not every wartime brooch copies a badge. Some name a place, and some were made near the front.

The Armentières brooch above puts a silver gun over a gold scroll with the town's name. Brooches carved in mother of pearl in Bethlehem carry the town's name or a date, such as the New Zealand brooch marked Bethlehem 1918. Shrapnel and bullet jewellery was also made as trench art.

A place name or a date carved into the piece is part of its story. Keep it with any letters that mention it.

Sources: Auckland Museum; Auckland Museum; AWM; History Workshop.

Tracing the soldier behind a brooch

Start with the brooch itself: the badge gives the unit, and the back may give initials, a date or a service number. Then match them to the records.

• Engraving. Auckland holds brooches engraved with a soldier's service number, with brothers' names and with initials and a date.
• Service records. About two thirds of First World War soldiers' service records were destroyed when the War Office store was bombed on 7 to 8 September 1940. The survivors, the “burnt documents”, are in series WO 363, and pension records in WO 364.
• The war dead. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists those who died in service.
• Regimental museums. Many hold sweetheart brooches and welcome family histories.

Watches often come home with the brooch: see our Dirty Dozen military watches and military pocket watches guides.

Sources: The National Archives, WO 364; The National Archives research guide; Auckland Museum.

Caring for a family brooch

Leave the brooch as it is. Polishing, dipping and re-enamelling remove the wear that shows its age.

• Do not polish. Silver dip and polish attack enamel and mother of pearl.
• Do not repair it yourself. A loose pin or catch is a job for a jeweller.
• Store it on its own. A soft pouch keeps the pin from scratching other pieces.
• Keep the story with it. Medals, letters, photographs and the box belong together.
• Photograph both sides. In good daylight, before anything else is done.

For wearing one today, see how to wear an antique brooch.

Valuing or selling a sweetheart brooch

What a sweetheart brooch is worth depends on the metal, the maker, the stones, the condition of the enamel, the unit and the story you can prove. Every piece is different, so we value each one individually.

• Metal. Gold and hallmarked silver before brass and nickel.
• Maker. A named jeweller such as Asprey or the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company.
• Stones. Diamonds, platinum and gem-set pieces.
• Condition. Complete enamel, the original pin and no repairs.
• The unit. How rare the badge is.
• Provenance. A name, a service record, photographs or medals that go with it.

Send us a few photos and we will tell you what yours is worth, free and with no obligation.

We buy brooches every week: see sell your silver jewellery, sell your gold jewellery and sell your antique jewellery. If the brooch came to you with other jewellery, read inherited jewellery: what to do. Browse our brooches and antique and vintage brooches.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Mourning jewellery guideVictorian mourning to Remembrance.
• Dirty Dozen military watchesThe 1945 W.W.W. watches and their marks.
• Military pocket watchesBroad arrows, G.S.T.P. and service watches.
• Birmingham Assay Office guideThe anchor mark and date letters.
• Antique and vintage broochesStyles, makers and eras.
• How we authenticate antique jewelleryWhat we check, and why.