| In
1946, a key return service was started by the veterans
of the Second World War who returned from overseas with
tuberculosis or other respiratory ailments. |
This
program provided veterans with meaningful employment and
British Columbians with a keytag to identify their lost
keys. This keytag was originally an exact replica of a
person's BC licence plate. However, for security reasons
the plate number was replaced with a secret coded number
in 1975. |
The
keytag itself resembled the personalized BC licence plate
until 2005, when the design was changed to a non-descript
plastic tag. Oddly the new design incorporates an image
of the 1998-2004 keytag on the front. Is it just
me or does it not seem a bit strange that the TB Vets
would promote a design they no longer see fit to use? |
| . |
Competing
Keytag Agencies |
| As
can be seen in the two keytags presented below,
for many years motorists had a choice between
the keytags offered by the "Tuberculous and
Chest Disabled Veterans' Association" of
Vancouver (at left); and the "War Amputations
of Canada" of Toronto (at right). |
TB VETS |
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WAR AMPS |
|
According
to Pierre Delacote, when the keytags system
was established after the war, the Toronto based
War Amps made a run at trying to control the
distribution of the tags in all of the provinces
and territories - hence the metal BC keytags
that exist for the years 1946 & 1947.
|
As
can be seen in the images below, the first year
TB Vet keytags comprised a piece of paper snapped
into the plastic keytag. Oddly, despite being
based out of Vancouver, the paper is stamped "Victoria,
B.C." 1946 was to be the only year
that the paper insert was used by the TB Vets,
whereas the War Amps would continue to employ
variations on the metal-frame model until the
mid-1990s. |
|
While
the War Amps are still going strong today and
provide a national key return service, they were
never able to displace local outfits such as the
TB Vets in British Columbia. It is understood
that in later years the War Amps abandoned the
province specific designs in favour of a more
generic / national design. As mentioned above,
the War Amps stuck with the metal-frame design
until 1995 when a switch was finally made to plastic.
To read more about it, the War Amps web site can
be found at: www.waramps.ca/keytags
|
War Amps - 1995 |
War
Amps - 2004 |
|
| 2005
- 2011 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Keytag program, the TB Vets issued a special keytag in 2005. |
 |
To celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Keytag program, the TB Vets issued a special "retro" style keytag in 2011. |
|
| . |
________________________________
Sources |
| TB Vets http://www.tbvets.org (January 4,
2002) |
| War Amps http://www.waramps.ca/keytags/
(April 15, 2008) |
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