Vintage enamel identity Bracelet, Military? WRENS?

Snap. So, if it's the same Maud, it's well before WW2 and Mr Medley must have been her second spouse. So, did she move from Smethwick to Sheffield? Or maybe the bracelet's owner was her mother.

On those initial and number sequences, if it were something well enough known it would be researcheable, and it doesn't show up. I've never seen either set.

 

The other thing I'm trying to recall is when the use of a numbered Sheffield district came in.

 

Yup, davey. Which means the bracelet was engraved before 1931.

 

According to etiquette of the day, "Mrs. Maud M. Crisp" indicates she was the widow of a man named Crisp.

Debora

 

Hm. Dug around a bit. It isn't a WW2 National ID number. Those were four letters, yes, but not as an abbreviation, so no full stops. That indicated the register. There's then a numeric sequence which relates to the household's position in the register, and then the individual's position in the household. No slashes.

Interestingly, said ID numbers later became one's NHS number.

 

Yup, widow. But when she remarried, she'd have taken the new spouse's name, of course.

 

Although..... my grandmama, who was very correct, never referred to herself as Mrs Joe Bloggs, even when her name was in the local papers.

 

General thoughts: Crisp was a very common name in the area. A quick internet search brings up a green grocer and a headmaster. Maud late Victorian name; peak popularity in the 1880s in England.

Debora

 

And actually, over here, it was also considered very correct for a widow to still use Mrs Joe Bloggs. Indeed, I've seen some wedding announcements, STILL using that. The first name sometimes denoted divorced.

 

I've seen American pieces from the WWII era made the same way, with the same markings. Could those be American bits of silver exported to the UK, for use when Birmingham wasn't up to snuff? I have a couple of them that probably date to after the War; one definitely does because the manufacturer didn't exist before it.

 

I have a Mother pendant made from an Aussie dime and a piece of perspex. I"m betting mine and yours were done by someone with jewelry-making training and improvised materials.