
The famous
Rising Sun Badge selected as the Army's
General Service badge in 1902 but now the
badge of the army, originated in colonial
South Australia.
The
original concept, a collection of bayonets
and sword bayonets radiating from a crown,
was designed as a trophy. The initial
drawing was done by Major Joseph Maria
Gordon, of the South Australian Permanent
Artillery who, in 1893, was appointed to be
the first commanding officer of the newly
constructed Fort Glanville on the coast west
of Adelaide. The working drawing for the
trophy was the work of an Adelaide artist,
Mr. Frank Bartels, and was titled
'Australian - Rising Sun'.
Major Gordon requested the assistance of the
navy in the manufacture of the trophy. It
was made by a shipwright aboard the South
Australian colonial vessel HMCS Protector
and Major Gordon hung it in the officer's
quarters at Fort Glanville, probably in
1893. It remained there for some time.
Major Gordon was later to be appointed
Commandant of the South Australian Military
Forces and he rose to be Chief of the
General Staff before his retirement in 1914.
It is believed that he took the Rising Sun
trophy with him when he left Fort Glanville
for it was still in his possession in 1902.
That year he parted with it. He presented it
to Major-General Sir Edward Hutton, a
British officer who had arrived in Australia
earlier that year at the request of the
Federal Government to organize the
heterogeneous forces of the six states into
one Commonwealth Army. Major-General Hutton
placed the trophy above the doorway to his
office in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, and
it remained there for two years.
His suggestion was acted upon and three
pencil designs were submitted to a Melbourne
firm of die-sinkers. One was chosen and a
supply of badges was hurriedly made for the
1st Battalion.
When the 1st Battalion, Australian
Commonwealth Horse, was being raised for war
service in South Africa, Major-General
Hutton decided that the force should have a
special badge.
He is reported to have pointed to the trophy
above his doorway and said: "Why not
something like that?"
Before Major-General Hutton returned to
England he was honoured with a dinner,
presided over by the naval chief
Rear-Admiral Sir William Rooke Creswell, and
held at Melbourne's Menzies Hotel.
During his speech, Major-General Hutton
referred to the Rising Sun trophy. He said:
"It resulted from a coordinated effort by
the army and navy in South Australia . . .
to me it represents not only the
coordination of military forces, it also
represents the coordination of the naval and
military forces of the Commonwealth, and
this is happily suggested by the
circumstances of its construction . . . it
was constructed aboard the first major
sea-going ship of the Commonwealth Naval
Forces."
Major-general Hutton then presented the
trophy and Mr. Bartel's drawing to
Rear-Admiral Creswell. He said that the
drawing was to be regarded as the 'Title to
the Australian Sun' which he entrusted to
the Admiral until its disposal to a more
permanent site. Rear-Admiral Creswell placed
the trophy in the care of the Naval
Commandant, in Port Melbourne. From there it
was transferred to the Williamstown Naval
Depot pending a permanent site at Flinders
Naval Depot.
In
the following years several attempts were
made by the Army at high level to retrieve
the Rising Sun trophy from the Navy. Finally
on the 5 August, 1969, it was handed back to
the army and placed on permanent display in
Army Headquarters in Canberra. It remains
there today--on a wall to the entrance foyer
to Army Office at the Department of
Defence's Russel Hill complex.
The Rising Sun badge was adopted as the
General Service Badge of the 1st AIT, as the
badge of the Australian Instructional Corps
and as the General Service Badge of the 2nd
AIF. In 1949 the title on the scroll was
changed from 'Australian Commonwealth
Military Forces' to Australian Military
Forces'. In 1972, Her Majesty the Queen
approved further changes to the badge: The
crown to be superimposed on the Federation
Star and the word Australia to replace other
words on a scroll of slightly different
design.

Australian Defence
Heritage
By Frank Doak and Jeff Isaacs
© Department of Defence Canberra
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