love4history

Hi Does anybody know what happened to http://users.skynet.be/belgianordersandmedals/ ? The site seems to be offline? Cheers l4h

Very nice project, and you're definitely not nearly finished with the research! There's still more to be found out there I think. :cool:

Hi Steven I reckon' the one in the middle is the one you mean? This is indeed the so-called "Atjeh medal" (often referred to as the kraton-medal as well) It was instituted on May 12th 1874, for participation in the first and/or second Atjeh expedition between 05 april 1873 - 26 april 1874. This campaign medal was instituted prior to the first Atjeh clasp for the expedition cross but the recipients were also granted the expedition cross with the clasp Atjeh 1873-1874 (as seen in the picture above) Take note: this one has most of the gild rubbed off, the medal actually should be gilded with a shiny goldlike finish. There might be even more # sizes, none of which have a special meaning other then preference of the wearer, different manufacturer or such. No nominal rolls are known off. If there are such things they probably have become cockroach food somewhere in a Jakarta attic or basement... There must be parts of KNIl (colonial Dutch army) archives left stored somewhere in Indonesia. Perhaps someday something might turn up, but I wouldn't hold my breath. cheers l4h Ps: noticed this actually was your first post.. so welcome!

Thought I'd add this one. Named to Josslou(?) Louis, Sdt in 282 IR The document is dated October 11th 1918, and signed by the President of the Regional Commission of the Jura (département) Interestingly the authority that originally should have awarded this cerificateas preprinted on the form (Le commandant du Dépôt du.... Régiment) is striped trough and replace by a stamp of the above mentioned commission. It seems that this commission also had other tasks as evidenced by the round stamp at the bottom, which next to the identification of this commission also reads "internement des prissoniers de guerre". cheers lh4

Both boxes seem to be Belgian to me. I also tend to see the same name on the boxes. Something like Mr. Winters X (or something to that effect) on the first one and the same "Winters" (striped trough) or so on the second one. So I dare to say that both boxes belonged to the same gentleman. The second one also has the Dutch "herinnering" on it, indicating it held a commemorative medal. WWI commémo perhaps? You said you got a number of Belgian items. Perhaps the answer is in the rest of the lot?

It certainly does PK. Nice find!

Hi there According to me the medal could be awarded without bars for one year service in the colonial armed forces between 40-45. Not necessarily partaking in any campaigns. By the way James, it's "Force Publique" not "Force République", which is rather like cursing in the church where a royal colony is concerned eh... cheers l4h

Hi Ringo You can still ask him now I think in a polite letter or emailmessage. It just shows you appreciate the item he gave you, and you're interested in it. Nice gift you got there. It's "only" the uniform of (what used to be) the 2nd in command of the Belgian Armed Forces after the Belgian King..... cheers l4h

Here he's wearing the full size medals of the bottom row of the ribbon bar (next to his national orders) http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0aABbhJ5Bacwc/610x.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.daylife.com/photo/0aABbhJ5Bacwc&usg=__j578vhcE1hxx0xBGyAFqy0-Ylks=&h=432&w=610&sz=58&hl=nl&start=105&um=1&tbnid=Ncyykmw09dcfrM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daugust%2Bvan%2Bdaele%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Dnl%26sa%3DN%26start%3D100%26um%3D1

Still no answer, but this will probably interst you as well: Chief of the General Staff of Belgium General A. Van Daele 2003 - General August. VAN DAELE was born in Sint-Niklaas on Feburary 25, 1944. After having graduated from high school at the Athénée Royal in Sint-Niklaas and the Royal Cadet Training School in Lier, he was admitted to the Royal Military Academy in 1962 as a student in the 117th Polytechnic Class. He was appointed as a second lieutenant on December 25, 1964. After his graduation in civil engineering in 1967 at the Polytechnic Division, he embarked on his Air Force career as a young technical officer at the Proficiency Training Centre in Brustem. In 1969, he was appointed to the Mobile Training Unit, set up with the introduction of the Mirage training programme. In 1971, he joined the Inspection and Technical Acceptance Testing Service, where he occupied the functions of line manager within the Sabca Gosselies section, then at Sabca Haren and subsequently in the itinerant section. In 1980, he became Commanding Officer Air Maintenance Squadron at the 10th Fighter-Bomber Wing in Kleine-Brogel. At the end of 1980, he was promoted Major and took part in the introduction of the new F-16 weapons system. In 1983, he was assigned to Air Force Headquarters in Evere, where he took up his duties as Deputy Commanding Officer of the Inspection and Technical Acceptance Testing Service. In 1984, he was admitted to the Defence College for the course BEM (General Staff Course Graduated). After his appointment to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in September 1985, he returned to the 10th Fighter-Bomber Wing in Kleine-Brogel as Commanding Officer of the Maintenance Group. From 1987 onward, he became the Head of the Inspection and Technical Acceptance Testing Service, then the Equipment Inspection Service, and finally took charge of the newly founded Inspection section. In 1990, he was promoted Colonel. In 1992, he joined the Equipment section, and due to restructuring of the technical and logistic services of Air Force Headquarters, he took over the command of the new Aviation Equipment section. Having been promoted to Major-General on June 26, 1994, he held the position of Deputy Chief of Staff – Logistics at Air Force Headquarters. On 26 December 1999, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General. He is a member of the Higher Committee of Surveillance, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the von Karman Institute. He also occupied the function of National Representative to the Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) until November 1996, when he became National Delegate to the Research and Technology Board (R&T Board). On 1 January 2002, he’s holding the position of Director General for Material Resources at the Defense Staff. On the 6th of December 2002 he is designated by the Council of Ministers to become Chief of Defence with a four years mandate. He took up his duties on the 1st of January 2003. At the same time he was promoted to General. General August VAN DAELE is aide to the King.

OK, not a direct answer but a good lead: most likely we are talking about the uniform of General August Van Daele, as he's wearing on this pic http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gLXgm1b3S3bh/610x.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.daylife.com/photo/0gLXgm1b3S3bh&usg=__2rF27Fh1KP7ug97yMTer2aPfDF4=&h=416&w=610&sz=65&hl=nl&start=5&tbnid=2-RxJkvQrhJOEM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daugust%2Bvan%2Bdaele%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dnl%26sa%3DG Now let's see if we can dig up info on his medals shall we cheers l4h

Yes! Got my first! What I see is (and please correct me if I'm wrong!) is the First Official Type (ARGENT mark in the rim). Suspension either made by Mercier or Salat. Can anyone tell me how to spot the difference? I can tell it isn't a Roux suspension. First issue clipover bar for Algerie. Ribbon has been turned around and is rather soiled but that's fine with me. I like my medals to look as if they have "lived" Does anyone know if the maker marks are somewhere online to further identify the medal and clasp? (with thanks to Hendrik for providing the info on his site which I used above)

Just to add to the number: one of each.

Hi Ulsterman, Officers had a different type of long-service medal (cross-shaped), so this would be a lower ranking recipients' medals. The clasps on the Expedition Cross are rather peculiar since the first 5 clasps for Atjeh (out of the 33 possible clasps there are 10 for Atjeh) each time replaced the earlier one and the claps was antedated to the first year of the war 1873. Meaning: the soldier that held the clasp Atjeh 1873-1874 (the very first Atjeh clasp) and also qualified for the second one: Atjeh 1873-1876 (for service between 27 april 1874- 31 december 1876) would have to wear either the first or the second clasp. You should never see more then one Atjeh clasp where the first 5 clasps are concerned. It wasn't untill the 6 th clasp 1896-1900 they stopped the antedating and an individual could wear more then two Atjeh clasps on the ribbon. In this case our man definitely was involved in Atjeh in the period January 1st 1889 - December 31st 1890. He might have been involved before as well, but there's no proof. Well, it was rather more then a campaign against Malay Pirates. It started of like that (and bears quite a ressemblance to Somalia anno 2009) in an area where the local sultan couldn't control his subordinates. But it evolved into a regular guerrilla independance war which lasted for 40 years up untill 1914! The area was never completely at rest, and 25 years later tensions were already high again but the Japanese invasion prevented a new full-scale outbreak of rebellion. When the Japanese left however the Dutch never regained control of Aceh (or Achin as it was referred to as well in English sources) and the area was one of the first to proclaim its' independence in 45. It was absorbed into Indonesia but even the Indonesian government hand a handfull to keep the local separatist rebels who want to proclaim an independent muslim country at bay. It wasn't untill about 10 years ago that things seemingly have calmed down.

I reckon.... So here's my contribution for your enjoyment... Latest acquisition and rather proud of it I must admit Dutch turn of the century colonial trio .. the 19-20 th turn of the century that is... with Lombok Cross (1894), Kruis voor Bijzondere Krijgsverrigtingen (Cross for Important Waractions aka Expedition Cross aka Lead William) with clasp Atjeh 1873-1890 (cross is a type II +-1900) and bronze medal for faithfull service (12 yrs of service, or in this case 6 years in the tropics, which were counted double) cheers l4h

Discovered yet another new medal... collecting field expansion is lurking right there. Thank you for putting that nice and interesting info online for all of us to enjoy! Anyone has a nice early one claps colonial (double sided suspension, see I learned something already ) he or she wants to part with, to kick off the new collecting area ... :)

Hello gentlemen Can anyone tell us more about this Major, decorated with the order of the crown and the order of the star? Thanks!

The ribbons in between (right one on the second row and the left one on the bottom row) then would make sense as the Fire Cross and the Interallied Victory Medal

This being said, I do believe the middle one in the middle row could actually be the Yser medal. The red and black darker compared to the yellow and red of the commemorative in the lowest row.

Could be, but not likely... I would expect the Ijzer-medal a bit higher up in ranking and if he had the Ijzermedal he should have at least two more ribbons after that: the victory and the commemorative...

Nearly impossible to tell I'm afraid. The only one I would dare to guess is the middle one on the bottom for the first world war commemorative medal. The one just before that should theoretically be the interallied victory medal.

.. to check the originality of this one... thanks gents!

Very nice ensemble, medal, document and pic! Am I mistaken or is that a British Military Medal as well on the picture, next to the Tolsto? medal?

Oh, and there was a Deschler KVK sold with Detlev today if you want to compare pics (and prices....)