Fob is no. 1279. The story has it that at the outbreak of war, Mrs Cunliffe-Owen was walking down Bond Street when she met two big-game hunters of her acquaintance. Half-jokingly, she asked them why they had not signed up, and half-jokingly they challenged her to raise a battalion of her own. In response she telegraphed Lord Kitchener in September 1914 who accepted her offer to raise a battalion of physically fit men, able to shoot and ride. She and her husband set up a recruiting office in the Hotel Cecil on the Strand and got to work. She placed an advert in The Times, seeking �Sportsmen, aged 19 to 45, upper and middle class only. Wanted at once.� Before they went overseas, Mrs Cunliffe-Owen presented all ranks of her battalions with a silver medallion, bearing her signature and the message, �God guard you.� The museum holds several examples of these in its collection.