Netherlands Foreign awards to Belgians WWI

[Veteran]

Sorry I just noticed I made a mistake in the order of awards :

Legion d'honneur - Medaille militaire - Croix de guerre with BRONZE PALM on ribbon - French Victory Medal - French War Commemorative Medal - BWM with MID - Belgian Yser Medal.

This should be right

Veteran

[Igor Ostapenko]

British Decoration awarded to the Belgian Army .

From Kew ...

(Sorry for the quality of picture ... )

[Igor Ostapenko]

2nd page

[Igor Ostapenko]

to be given ...

[dante]

to be given ...

If ever our hobby becomes a question of "what's it worth" and not the honour and sacrifice these men and women gave, then we are not worthy, albeit the frozen wastes of Russia or the heat of the desert or in Lucian's case a cold morning on the 27th of December 1916 all alone not knowing if his work was of value or if anyone cared, this medal group of brass and tin truly is what we try to preserve in our hobby and the honour of little Belgium, France and the free world.

[Vatjan]

Thanks for those Igor, very informative.

Best regards

Jan

[love4history]

Hello Dante,

We have discussed the French agent/medal group but not the Belgian one it seems? Do you have more info on him? Name?

[love4history]

Question for Veteran:

It seems that in the past you have investigated a BWM for an agent in Kew. Could you tell us what information we could expect to find there when we go for a search based on the medall roll number from the MIC of the recipient?

sincerely from Belgium

[Ed_Haynes]

An interesting Belgian-British WWI "crossover" group is up at the nest DNW auction. Lot 858.

See: http://www.dnw.co.uk/dnw/medals/FMPro?-db=...5829&-find=

A Great War M.M. group of six awarded to J. L. de Keersmaeker, a Belgian National, imprisoned by the Germans for Espionage, 1916-18

Military Medal, G.V.R., unnamed as awarded to foreign nationals; British War Medal 1914-20, M.I.D. oak leaf (J. L. de Keersmaeker); Belgium, Victory Medal 1914-18, unnamed; Croix de Guerre, ?A? cypher; Civic Medal 1914-18, 1st Class, with swords, gilt, with clasp, 1914-1918; together with a British War Medal 1914-20 (L. M. Oeters) good very fine and better (6) ?800-1000

[Igor Ostapenko]

[Veteran]

I am sorry I have possibly been slow answering this message. Yes, I have looked up the register at Kew. Basically, the informations given are : name, and adress of beneficiary. It is mostly useful to confirm the award as an given to a "foreign subject".

A good thing these registers were not available during the 1940-45 period, it would have made life for many people in Belgium and Northern France very uncomfortable...These BWM to undercover agents are a mine of untold adventure. I hope they will benefit from a maximum of investigation from the collecting fraternity.

Very best regards to all

Paul

Question for Veteran:

It seems that in the past you have investigated a BWM for an agent in Kew. Could you tell us what information we could expect to find there when we go for a search based on the medall roll number from the MIC of the recipient?

sincerely from Belgium

[love4history]

Sigh.... deep sigh..... perhaps.... one day.... If any of the forum members wants to invest in buying this group and selling it back to me in a, say 2-year, payment plan, please let me know...

[Michael Johnson]

Sigh.... deep sigh..... perhaps.... one day.... If any of the forum members wants to invest in buying this group and selling it back to me in a, say 2-year, payment plan, please let me know...

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp.

Or what's a heaven for?"

Robert Browning

[Vatjan]

British Decoration awarded to the Belgian Army .

From Kew ...

(Sorry for the quality of picture ... )

Hi Igor,

Couls you help me out with the awarding dates of each series of medals.

I have found in the Belgian archives a couple of award lists, each for a specific date, and I woul like to link those to your awarding sheet, but I can't read the dates on the pic

Thanks

Jan

[usmcrpfc]

This may be off-topic....This is a bar purchased at a flea market outside Paris around 1991

Bill

[Veteran]

This may be off-topic....This is a bar purchased at a flea market outside Paris around 1991

Bill

Bill,

This looks very much like a Frenchman's awards trio. One would say it belonged to an officer (Legion of honor) who received a french croix de guerre with 2 mentions in dispaches as well as a belgian croix de guerre with 2 more mentions. Possibly a liaison officer on the Northen Front with the Belgians.

Since the two first awards are French, it signs the nationality of the wearer.

A rather unusual combination. Nice buy.

Regards

Veteran

[Veteran]

Hello

Since this group of posts is devoted to British awards to Belgian recipients, I hope my question will prove relevant.

The "Allied Subjectsr' Medal" was created by the British Government in 1920/22 to recognize outstanding help given by foreign nationals to British soldiers during WW1.

Very few medals were awarded (134 silver - 574 bronze) more than half of which went to Belgian nationals, which is the reason for my post being inserted here. The other medals went mostly to French citizens, as well as a few Dutch, Danish and members of half-a dozen other countries (Abbott & Tamplin " British Gallantry Awards" 1981).

This picture shows two silver Allied Subjects's Medals. The first is a genuine british stricking. The second is quite different, and was bought many years ago at auction in Paris.

This second medal is obviously a replacement or a copy. Slightly smaller than the original (35mm copy/ 36mm original) the King's head is also smaller. The medal is silver for both, the "copy" bears the French "swan" hallmark for imported silver sold at auction. The main feature is its heavily polished look, erasing much of its details.

Since this very scarce medal, which was never named nor were the names of recipients ever published, obviously was dangereous to keep in occupied countries during WW2, I have come to wonder if replacements could not have been made for those that had been lost or carefully destroyed during that period.

The lack of silver hallmark might also suggests a Belgian origiin, if it is legitimate.

Very little seems to have been written on this subject, except the outstanding work by Abbot & Tampin. As far as I know, naturally.

Would members of this forum care to share their comments about these two medals, the question being : would any one know if replacements were ever made in Belgium ?

Best regards

Veteran

[Veteran]

Hello

Since this group of posts is devoted to British awards to Belgian recipients, I hope my question will prove relevant.

The "Allied Subjectsr' Medal" was created by the British Government in 1920/22 to recognize outstanding help given by foreign nationals to British soldiers during WW1.

Very few medals were awarded (134 silver - 574 bronze) more than half of which went to Belgian nationals, which is the reason for my post being inserted here. The other medals went mostly to French citizens, as well as a few Dutch, Danish and members of half-a dozen other countries (Abbott & Tamplin " British Gallantry Awards" 1981).

This picture shows two silver Allied Subjects's Medals. The first is a genuine british stricking. The second is quite different, and was bought many years ago at auction in Paris.

This second medal is obviously a replacement or a copy. Slightly smaller than the original (35mm copy/ 36mm original) the King's head is also smaller. The medal is silver for both, the "copy" bears the French "swan" hallmark for imported silver sold at auction. The main feature is its heavily polished look, erasing much of its details.

Since this very scarce medal, which was never named nor were the names of recipients ever published, obviously was dangereous to keep in occupied countries during WW2, I have come to wonder if replacements could not have been made for those that had been lost or carefully destroyed during that period.

The lack of silver hallmark might also suggests a Belgian origiin, if it is legitimate.

Very little seems to have been written on this subject, except the outstanding work by Abbot & Tampin. As far as I know, naturally.

Would members of this forum care to share their comments about these two medals, the question being : would any one know if replacements were ever made in Belgium ?

Best regards

Veteran

[Veteran]

As an addition to the former post, this picture of both reverses :

Thank you.

Veteran

[palestine]

Hi there,

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back on the forum due to work and family committments but as this topic is about awards to agents in ww1 I thought i would add a post to that effect. Although my main field of collecting is Police and Fire medals i do have a passion for unusual military and civil awards especially awards to women.

About a year or so ago i purchased a nice related pair of 1914-18 British War medals to M. DELEYE / A. DELEYE both with mic verifying they were both BELGIUM AGENTS several months later I recieved a call from the same dealer informing me that a third War Medal which had been forgotton turned up to S. DELEYE which i bought to complete the family set.

1] MARGUERITE DELEYE [ of GROBBENDONK] 2] SYLVIA DELEYE [ also GROBBENDONK 3] ALICE DELEYE [ of HOOGLEDE]

All three are mentioned in the London Gazette in Haighs despatch these being the only name of Deleye in the London Gazette and also the MIC

They may be either three sisters or possibly mother and two daughter at a rough guess, surely this lot with mids has got to be a one off family grouping sadly at present this is all the info i have on the medals in question.

could any member point me in the right direction of where i can find out more on theses three extremely brave Belgian lady agents, there has got to be a good story here. also could any member give me some idea of any other awards these ladies may have recieved for their valued services. thanks

any info on the mather would be greatly appreciated.