From January 1907, Army Order 9 determined that all soldiers were to wear ID tags. These took the form of an aluminium disc that included the soldier's number, rank, name, regiment and religious denomination.

The First World War brought many changes to the production of ID tags. From 21 August 1914 new red or brown fibre disc tags were issued. These were cheaper to make than aluminium discs. In September 1916 an additional ID tag was introduced to aid in identifying fallen soldiers. In addition to the red tag strung on a short chord, an eight-sided tag was placed on a longer chord around the neck. The octagonal tag would remain with the dead soldier while the red tag was taken to report the death. Therefore, if a body was found with only an octagonal tag it would be known that the death had already been recorded and the details on the octagonal tag could be used for the grave marker. As all of the ID tags here are present we can tell that Sergeant C Haywood survived the war.