Thomas William Compton born 1897        Home village or town, Rangeworthy, Gloucestershire and Havant, Hampshire   Thomas (known as Billy)                         Back row from the left: Billy, Emily, Emma Compton (Billy's mother) c1930. The decoration was introduced as an award of "King's silver" for having received wounds or injury during loyal war service. A secondary causation for its introduction was that a practice had developed in the early years of the war where some women took it upon themselves to confront and publicly embarrass men of fighting age they saw in public places who were not in military uniform, by ostentatiously presenting them with white feathers, as a suggestion of cowardice. The badge was intended to be worn on civilian clothes. Wiki     Thomas's WW1 journal         Pages   1-6,  7-12,   13-18,   19-24,   25-30,  31-39,   other pages Page 1               Page 2   British Army camp at Harfleur (near Le Havre), France in March 1916.                       July-1916           Page 3                                             Page 4                   August-1916                                 Page 5         Map of Beaumont-Hamel during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 Red – British front line Blue – German fortifications       September-1916             Page 6   Thomas's mentions Courcelette and Gueudecourt on the map.       February-1917