Thomas William Compton born 1897   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 7   A view along a road into the village of Sailly-au-Bois in northern France 1915.                               March-1917   Page 8           Page 9                             Hotel De Ville, Arras. In the Battle of Arras (April/May 1917) the British achieved the longest advance since trench warfare had begun. The advance slowed in the next few days as the German defence recovered and the battle became a costly stalemate for both sides. The British suffered about 160,000 casualties and the German 6th Army about 125,000.   Page 10     Page 11           Page 12         British artillery           May 1917