Canada, Commonwealth. A Knights Of Columbus Catholic Army Huts War Services Cap Badge, Scarce

In bronze, unmarked, illustrating a left-facing beaver backed by four maple leaves, above the letters "CAH" (Catholic Army Huts) in the centre, surrounded by the inscription "KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS / WAR SERVICES", with a single maple leaf on either side, surmounted by the Canadian coat-of-arms, measuring 28.5 mm (w) x 36.5 mm (h), both lugs and pin intact, very light contact, near extremely fine.

Footnote: The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal society founded in 1882 in Connecticut. The movement spread out from the United States to other Anglophone countries including Canada. The society provided comforts, food and support to servicemen in both world wars. They provided recreation huts with the slogan "Everybody Welcome, Everything Free". Huts were built in Canadian cities and across the globe, including in England, Iceland, Italy, Hong Kong and the Middle East. The huts tended to the physical and spiritual welfare of the servicemen, offering not only entertainment and recreation, such as a "toboggan party" in Brandon, Manitoba, but also religious services. The Knights of Columbus huts were not quaint dwellings, but large-scale facilities with the ability of serving meals to thousands at a time, as well as providing cigarettes, magazines and live shows, as in St. John’s Newfoundland and the Sydney Fortress Area, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, in places like Aldershot, weekly attendance at the Knights of Columbus chapel was well over 1,000. In 1941 alone, more than one million men in the armed forces were served in huts and hostels in Nova Scotia. Supreme Knight Francis Matthews, who also served as chairman of the National Catholic Community Service (NCCS) and as one of three vice presidents of the United States Organization (USO), toured Canadian Knights of Columbus Army Huts in 1943 and was astonished by their work. "They are really a part of the auxiliary service of the Canadian Army", Supreme Knight Matthews wrote in Columbia magazine (April, 1943). "Everybody says that the work of the Knights of Columbus is indispensable to the Canadian forces."