poliphilo

This turned up in the move and I've been carrying it about in my pocket. I sort of know what it is but then again I don't.

Here are the facts

1. It was made by J.C. Gaunt and Sons- a firm specialising in military buttons and badges.

2. It displays the badge of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment- in which my grandfather served during the Great War.

3. It looks like a button but it isn't a button but a brooch or badge. There's a pin on the back (which happens to be broken).All the signs are it was always a badge and not a button that has been reconfigured.

So who'd have worn it and under what circumstances?

I have three theories.

1. It's a woman's brooch and would have been worn by a soldier's sweetheart, wife or female relative.

2. It's something a soldier would have worn when out of uniform to show he wasn't a shirker.

3. It's something an old soldier would have worn to advertise his former loyalty.

But where would any of them have worn it? On the lapel? but I've been looking at pictures of lapel badges-specifically military lapel badges- and they're generally flat not button shaped

So I'm stumped.

Am I overlooking something obvious?