Month: October 2026

Some finds at Charing Cross Market take a little decoding. This enamel badge comes with a number, a story and a rather pressing explanation.

The clue is ‘10-100’. If you know your CB radio codes, you may already be smiling. For everyone else, it means a toilet break: a discreet way to announce that you’ll be off air while you attend to something more urgent.

Suddenly, a puzzling little badge makes perfect sense.

Thought to date from the 1970s, it’s a small souvenir of CB radio culture, when conversations over the airwaves came with their own vocabulary. A few numbers could get a message across without spelling everything out. In this case, probably a kindness to everyone listening.

It also shows how much interest can hide in an apparently modest object. You don’t need a precious metal, a famous signature or a grand historical occasion to find something worth investigating. Sometimes, an enamel badge and a baffling number are enough.

That’s part of the pleasure of browsing Charing Cross Market. Something catches your eye, curiosity takes over, and a little research reveals a story you weren’t expecting. This particular discovery just happens to concern someone who couldn’t stay on the air much longer. A small badge, then, with a surprisingly human message.

10-4, Rubber Duck!

At first glance, these two small enamel badges appear to be identical.

Both date from 1940 and carry the words ‘Resurgam 1940’ over a design combining the Union Jack with the French tricolour. Turn them over, however, and an important difference appears.

One carries a membership number together with a raised ‘S’, denoting a supporter. Badges such as these were issued by Les Français de Grande-Bretagne, a civilian organisation created in 1940 to support the Free French cause through practical help and fundraising.

The organisation brought together French people living in Britain who wanted to continue supporting their country during the war. Its activities were centred in London, with Trafalgar Square playing an important part in its early story – just a short distance from Charing Cross Collectors Market.

The badges themselves are small gilt-brass pieces, measuring around 20mm across. At their centre is the French tricolour, laid over the Union Jack, with ‘Resurgam 1940’ picked out prominently across the front.

Despite its French connection, ‘Resurgam’ is not French at all. It comes from Latin and means ‘I will rise again’ – a particularly powerful choice of words in 1940. The reverses are marked ‘H.W. Miller Ltd, Branston St, B’ham’, identifying the Birmingham manufacturer.

There was also a more temporary version of the design. Paper and foil badges were produced for fundraising, similar to the pin badges sold on flag days during the First World War.

More than 80 years later, these little badges are reminders of the links between Britain and France at one of the most difficult moments in their shared history – and of the civilian organisations and individual supporters who played their own part in the war effort.