The first Ships Badges for the Royal Navy were often figureheads and unofficial badges made up by members of the crew, all sorts of designs were to be found in the fleet and often the Flag Officer would have his own badge or coat of arms displayed on his ship. He would later remove this when leaving the ship. Ships without a badge would usually have scroll work around the bows, which would be gilded or left plain depending on whether the Captain would be prepared to pay for it.

As with all things military the Admiralty decided to set up a Committee to colate all the badges in existance and provide all ships in commission with an official approved badge, thus giving some uniformity to the badges worn by H.M Ships, and replace the mostly unofficial ones which at best were tasteful works of art and at worst open to all sorts of crude designs and motto's

In 1916 The Government set up a museum for the collection of artefacts of war, the man appointed curator was Charles Ffoulkes, his hobby was collecting Ships Badges, he had also served in the Royal Navy at the beginning of WW1. He was friends with a Mr George Richardson who was a director of the Swan Hunter Wigham Richardson shipyard on the Tees (now Swan Hunters). The shipyard was building dstroyers for the Amiralty and in 1917 HMS Tower was launched. The ships Commanding Officer asked Richardson if he could offer a design for a badge for his ship, Richardson spoke to ffoulkes about this and they came up with a design that showed the White Tower of The Tower of London, with the Motto "God save King George & his Tower" this was encased in circular rope frame, with a Naval Crown at the top, and the name "TOWER" set into a rectangular panel at the bottom. This was the to be the badge that set the design for all the badges to come and from which todays badges are derived.

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