Tony

William, I’ll echo the above. That really is a very nice find. 

A year or so ago I only found out that a great great uncle of mine was killed in Princes St. during the fighting on 19/7/16.

On 21/01/2017 at 23:08, Paul C said:

I have given some thought to my focus of which British Victory Medals I would like to collect. Please let me know if this is possible.

I would like to collect Victory medals named to men in the Royal Navy and see if I can get a medal to at least one person who served on every battleship. A few questions:

When I see a medal named to a man in the RN what are the online sources to see what ship he served on?

Does this collecting focus make sense?

I really appreciate all the help and advice from everyone.

Last one... In the above post there is a reference to BWM. What is that?

One man may have served on several ships so checking the papers in the links Michael provided is a good idea and thinking about the cost of medals, those to men who took part at Jutland will increase the price as will any medal to men serving with the RAN. I'm not about RCN medal prices.

Just a question - why only the VM? A man may be entitled to a trio or pair depending when he entered theatre and if discharged through wounds/sickness he'd also be entitled to the silver war badge. Sailors who fell will have a memorial plaque. However, hunting down a broken group may be a never ending task.

Is the MN of interest? They also received the Mercantile Marine War Medal.

The book Paul mentions is a very good idea, not cheap but perhaps 2nd hand copies are available online http://bookshop.nationalarchives.gov.uk/9780952754442/Great-War-Medal-Collectors-Companion/

It's 27/3/15.

Tony

Very interesting, there are always German letters to be found but rarely any to Commonwealth troops.

Is that D E Parker who was captured in 1940?

7 hours ago, Paul R said:

I find it amazing how these keep coming to you.  I have no doubts that POW groups are so very rare, yet you keep finding new sets. 

Me too, both you and John just keep turning them up.

The above group has to be a very lucky find and just goes to show that dealers don't always do research. I recently bought a boxed group of 3 from a dealer to a man wounded in Normandy, Aug. 44. It had to be Falaise and after checking the diary I found he was wounded on a day his inf. Bn. attacked 3 Tigers. Good old FMP.

I'm all for it being a put together, someone (maybe George?) at some stage has married up the medal and ribbon.

A quick look at the service record shows R8840 George Crow attested in Jan. 1915 at the age of 19 years and 26 days and was discharged because of sickness as he suffered with gastritis.

He served in the KRRC, Northants. Regt., 1/6 Sussex Cyclist Bn. and Royal Sussex Depot Bn., being discharged with chronic gastritis 29/9/17.

4480 G. Crow was from London and joined the army in 1902 whereas 8840 G. Crow was from Newcastle. Does the passenger list show an address?

You did ok for 40 euros having a POW included.

I hope these links to the ICRC work:

http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Details/94789/3/2/

and http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/List/94789/1872/37641/

It's PA37641 you need. He was captured unwounded in Armentieres 11/4/18, a look at the war diary will help with any research.

There will also be a memorial plaque out there somewhere but even though there are no doubt several to men with the same name, it won't make it any easier to find.

I can't speak for the badge itself even though the reverse looks a little fresh around the edge to me, but I always thought the prongs had rounded ends rather than square and that the soldering was done near to where the prongs would be bent, or from top to bottom rather than one join in the middle. My thoughts are based on several original French helmet badges I've seen.

Tony

Thanks mate!

I've had another go, just couldn't resist even though I still find the background a problem.

Civil Service Rifles

Commonwealth POWs

Some Germans (not sure if the red tabs on the greatcoat are correct)

More Germans, probably 1940 and I'm not convinced I got the uniform colour right

Brit POWs probably 1940

A nurse, possibly Red Cross

French infantry

Gurkha POWs

There was a Lieutenant John Bray RNVR Sussex Division who received a trio in WWI (Sub. Lieut. 27/2/15 & Lieut. 8/2/17). Do you know if the name matches with the Special Constabulary medal?

I've just found a Land Agent's Surveyor (Comm. Retired RNVR) named John Bray, born 1888 and living in Hastings, Sussex in 1939. More than likely the same man as above so the naming on the SC medal should give confirmation.

Interesting that he spoke of the enemy recovering their tanks over night and getting them going again within days. I used to work with a German who was on the Russian front, he told me the Russians did the same but German tanks couldn’t be repaired quick enough because they had to wait for the engineered parts to be made. 

Another fantastic group, more so because of the recordings online.

Just a 'few' of your favourites?

They're in fantastic condition.

A cracking and no doubt rare group.

On 19/10/2016 at 03:19, RobPinnell said:

Thanks for the response guys! its really good to know that people are still interested in the thread and enjoying the posts!

 

Rob, I might not always comment but I do enjoy the posts. Same goes for John's posts.

Too sure of themselves combined with a large amount of disposable income, new and naive collector or perhaps someone's nan bought it as a chrissy pressie for her grandson? The list is probably annoyingly endless.

Have you found any photos of him in uniform?

There isn't really an approx. value for Commonwealth medals, the price for a QSA/KSA pair to a Pte. or any rank depends on his service record, unit, if he was wounded, killed, POW, died of disease, sat somewhere in camp peeling potatoes or white washing rocks, if he took part in any battles etc.

On the face of it about 100 GBP for the QSA depending on the clasps and £70 for the KSA but they need to be sold together and are worth more together.

The value in US$ depends on the daily falling exchange rate of the GBP. Checking out an online UK dealer list is an option.

7 hours ago, RobPinnell said:

 

He was sent to Stalag 18D at Marburg an der drau, (which is modern day Maribor in Slovenia), arriving on the 3rd of July 1941. He stayed here until the 5th of August 1941 when he was put to work on a farm at Rotenturm in Austria. On the 13th of August 1941, the Red Cross confirmed that he was a prisoner and safe which must have been a great relief to his family as his would have been listed as missing since April! 

On the 2nd of June '42, a year after his capture, he was transferred to Stalag 18a at Spittal and he was held here until the 13th of April 1944 when he was transferred to Stalag 357 at Thorn arriving here on the 17th of April. On the 14th of August 1944, he was transferred to Fallingbostel which he stayed at until the 8th of April 1945 when the prisoners were marched away from the Russians.

Were Russians that close to Fallingbostal in April 45?

I'll echo Brett's comment.

Tony

But if he only offered free post isn't it down to him to refund you? Besides, ebay is usually on the side of the buyer even if he did ask if you wanted it sent insured, however it might work differently with bank transfers. A 50 euro lesson

I've had 3 items go missing in Germany, 1 in the UK and 1 in the US this year.

Mate, have a look here http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/helmets/canadian-mk-ii-its-components-397580/

About halfway down the page is your strap but opinions seem to be divided as to when it was used.

Further down the page postwar straps are pictured.

13 hours ago, mike y said:

So one more thing about this helmet. It came with this rather beat up strap and I was told that it was a post war strap. That being said I decided to replace it with a known wartime example.... now I'm having second thoughts about this decision.... I'm thinking that this could possibly now be an early war example. Thoughts?

 

I was hoping Jerry might see this as he knows his stuff when it comes to Commonwealth militaria.

6 hours ago, mike y said:

I think its canadian as well.... here's another photo showing some repairs to the paint. Don't know if this was done during war time or post war and it doesn't bother me to know. I think it's a cool feature on this helmet

It obviously wasn't done last week and it's all part of its history, so wouldn't bother me either.

I'm not sure but it looks like a Canadian MKII with a VMC liner to me, but whether it is Canadian or not, it's a nice find.

That's really good Steve.