A First War Canadian Imperial Munitions Board Woman Worker with Six Months Service Bar

Pickled brass, maker marked "ELLIS BROS. TORONTO / DES. REG'D." and serial number impressed "10337" on the reverse, 30.3 mm x 38 mm, horizontal pinback, with a 5 mm x 22.5 mm bar suspended at the bottom inscribed "SIX MONTHS SERVICE", spotting on the reverse, extremely fine. Footnote: The Imperial Munitions Board (IMB) was the Canadian branch of the British Ministry of Munitions, set up in Canada under the chairmanship of Joseph Wesley Flavelle. It was formed by the British War Cabinet, to alleviate the Shell Crisis of 1915 during the First World War. The Board was mandated to arrange for the manufacture of war materials in Canada on behalf of the British government. It was the general and exclusive purchasing agent on behalf of the War Office, the Admiralty, the British Timber Controller, the Department of Aeronautics and the Ministry of Munitions, and also acted as an agent for the United States Department of Ordnance. In Canada, the Imperial Munitions Board, Canada (which was a British-directed and controlled organization that reported to the Ministry of Munitions in London, England) issued the Imperial Munitions Board Woman Worker badge in January 1917, to every woman who had worked for the Imperial Munitions Board for at least thirty days. Everyone would want to wear something that could show that they were "doing their bit" for the war effort. According to the National Archives in Ottawa, Canada, the IMB officials were not enthusiastic about the proliferation of private company badges, nor were they overly concerned with issuing their own badges (the Department of Militia and Defence through the Militia Council were also, at least in early 1916, opposed to badge issuance as well by the Canadian government).