Badges of honour
2022 marks The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We’ve designed some fantastic new badges to commemorate this very special occasion.
1952 was the year HM Queen Elizabeth II took the throne. But did you know it was also the year she became Girlguiding’s patron? And amazingly, The Queen’s history with us goes back even further to 1937, when she became a Guide aged 11. The 1st Buckingham Palace Guide Company was created especially for her and her younger sister Princess Margaret.
To celebrate The Queen’s remarkable 70-year reign, and her 85-year-strong relationship with Girlguiding, we’ve launched two new badges as keepsakes for our members. These are just the latest in a series we’ve produced to commemorate important occasions in The Queen’s life – from her Silver Jubilee in 1977 to her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. In fact, the badge we made for The Queen’s 90th birthday in 2016 is still one of our best-selling badges of all time – we sold over 250,000 of them! Will our Platinum Jubilee badges set a new record?
Working with the Scouts
We’ve created one of our Platinum Jubilee badges jointly with the Scouts. And this isn’t the first time we’ve come together to celebrate special occasions. Who can remember the Diamond Jubilee badge from 2012?
“The Queen has been patron of the the Scouts since 1952 as well as Girlguiding. It’s very special that we’ve got The Queen in common,” says Chris James, brand and ambassador manager at the Scouts.
“We thought that the Platinum Jubilee would be a great moment to show our shared values and solidarity as movements with so much in common. We thought The Queen would like to see us doing this together. She’s shown both organisations such encouragement, kindness and support over the past 70 years.”
Our very special badge for The Queen's Platinum Jubilee
The design process
David Jones, Girlguiding’s design lead, spearheaded the design of the joint badge – which is woven and features The Queen’s official Platinum Jubilee emblem alongside the Girlguiding trefoil and the Scouts fleur de lis. David also created our second Platinum Jubilee badge, a metal pin just for members of Girlguiding.
“I’ve worked for Girlguiding for almost 30 years. I’ve designed lots of badges in that time, but these two are very special,” David says.
“It was great to work with the Scouts on the collaborative badge. Between including the Scouts’ and Girlguiding’s colours and emblems, and the Jubilee logo, it was so much to fit into a tiny space. It took a lot of thought to create a badge members would think is special and are hopefully proud to wear.”
“There’s lots of symbolism within the badge,” explains David. “We’ve got dots radiating around from the central logo to represent the Scouts’ and Girlguiding’s close relationship with The Queen. And there are 70 dots to represent the 70 years, plus the badge has seven sides to represent seven decades of The Queen’s rule.
“I had the idea of weaving the two colours of the Scouts and Girlguiding together to represent our close working relationship. The two colours pop off each other to give a shimmering effect too. I also made the conscious decision to have the official Jubilee logo in the centre because it’s central to the whole celebration.”
Our Queen’s badges throughout the years
This isn’t the first time we’ve worked together with the Scouts on Jubilee badges! Check out our previous designs for the Silver Jubilee in 1977, and the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Do you have these badges in your collection?
The Silver Jubilee was 45 years ago! Were you a Girlguiding member at the time?
How did you celebrate the Diamond Jubilee? Maybe you took part in a Big Jubilee Lunch, or went to a street party?
Girlguiding’s badge
David is also proud of Girlguiding’s metal pin. “It’s a circular badge to represent the ongoing relationship we have with The Queen,” he says. “The seven jewels around the outside represent the seven decades of her reign. Each of the jewels has four sides, symbolic of Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers. Then we have purple for royalty, plus the colours of our four sections. You get a lot of storytelling in a tiny little space!”
A great team effort
Both Girlguiding and the Scouts were delighted with the final results.
“We really loved working in partnership with Girlguiding,” says Chris from the Scouts. “We think we’ve created the perfect badge for this special time. It’s a really powerful statement showing how grateful we are for The Queen’s encouragement over the years. It’s also a statement about the solidarity between our two great movements, and our spirit of togetherness.
“2022 is going to be such a celebratory year, and a cheerful, joyful time for the Scouts and Girlguiding. I think the badge really symbolises that.”
Get your badges!
You’re going to have lots of opportunities to celebrate and mark this historic moment with your units. These badges are a lovely keepsake, to remind you of a special occasion spent with the rest of your guiding family. Both the woven and metal commemorative badges are available to buy on our online shop now.
Today, we're also launching our final Platinum Jubilee badge – a fun badge to help girls celebrate the Jubilee activities and events they take part in. It is also available from our online shop.
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