Wessel Gordon

During the broadcast of the above event at one stage a four-star general walked out on the carpet. I have no idea who it was but he was in full uniform. The thing that struck me as odd was that he was wearing quite an impressive ribbon bar instead of his medals. My question is: given the solemnity of the occasion wouldn't it be fitting for any soldier (much less a full general) to wear their medals instead of the ribbon bar? I'm from South Africa so not familiar with the appropriate dress-code for foreign militaries. Any comment will be appreciated.

Paul, Thanks for the example. If I understand the last sentence of the middle paragraph correctly if a soldier enlisted on his 16th birthday and the legal enlistment age was 18 (not sure about the actual age requirement so using this as an example) he wouldn't be given pension for the first 2 years of service? If this soldier did take part in Waterloo before turning 18 was he entitled to add the 2 ''bonus years''? In this example the soldier would obviously have been born in 1799.

Laurentius, Thanks for the good advice. We are moving soon so all resources have to go into getting that done, consequently my collection will have to remain as it is right now.

Those are nice copies but I have two issues: 1. Getting the correct ribbon for all those in South Africa would be close to impossible; 2. I don't have a lot of money right now so can't really afford it anyway.

It's a replica. I always liked the looks of it so I bought it when I got the chance.

Then I'm out of advice and it's not like Stone Masons will willingly divulge much about their regalia, medals etc if it is indeed a Mason medal.

There seems to be some maker's mark or something on the bottom of the reverse. Trying to trace that might be a good start to figure out what kind of medal it is.

Another angle to consider on this is countries that number their medals instead of naming them as is the case with South African military medals. I admit it's not done on police medals here as far as I know but it's possible and unless you have the numbers of all prior or current serving police men/women finding out if a numbered medal was awarded to a female is mission impossible unless there's other documents or information to substantiate it.

QSAMike There's no need apologize for correcting me. I'm at fault for not double-checking that the ribbons were the right way around when i received them and simply assuming the seller would have made sure to attach them correctly. And we all know assumptions are the mother of all foul-ups.

Mitrich, Here's an updated photo of my British collection - with two originals, lol.

Andreas, Thanks for the reply. I'm new to medal collecting and have US, UK and South African medals so I'm familiar with oak leave clusters denoting further awards, hence the question.

I'm in South Africa as well and can honestly say I never paid attention to any policeman's nameplate although if I see a policeman or SANDF member I always check their rank since I am more interested in that. My usual reaction in seeing a police officer is usually ''oh crap...did I do something illegal I can't remember?'' Although I used to be friends with the commanding officer of the Kimberley SAPS which was lieutenant-colonel before he quit.

Is the difference in color between the two due to lighting, aging or different medals used?

OK, time for a novice question: what's the significance of the eagles on the 2 medals on the right...possibly rewarding of a second medal or upgrading to a higher ''level'' of those medals?

Prem, Thanks again. I'll see what I can find in the house. We're renovating before selling so things are a bit...''chaotic'' and certain things definitely not in the spots they aught to be.