I was shown this plaque which was issued to my Grandmother, fathers side (Shirley Luke) family, along with his transcribed diary, following the death of her brother on the western front WWI where he was a stretcher bearer.
My Grandfather (mother side) was also involved in the same battles at Messines and documented in letters home about the shrapnel wounds and gassing he received there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of ... ern_Front)
The Memorial Plaque was issued after the First World War to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the war.
The plaques (which could be described as large plaquettes) were made of bronze, and hence popularly known as the "Dead Man’s Penny", because of the similarity in appearance to the somewhat smaller penny coin. 1,355,000 plaques were issued, which used a total of 450 tonnes of bronze,[1] and continued to be issued into the 1930s to commemorate people who died as a consequence of the war.
[
Dead mans penny by
Phil Mitchell, on Flickr][/img]