Paul L Murphy

It looks ok. The reverse is correct for the period after about 1959 so it would be one of the later batches of badges made for the unit.

The 1 REP were formed in 1955 (1 September to be exact) from the 1 BEP, and disbanded in April 1961 following their participation in an attempted military putsch in Algeria. They had badges made by both Drago (like yours) and Courtois.

I suspect the badge is the 1 REP version, rather than the 1 BEP version. Can you show a clearer photo of the badge obverse. A nice uniform group, it is a pity that we cannot put a name to it.

No need to apologise, I did not think it in any way petulant. It was a perfectly reasonable question.

Without documents to support the "group" I always tend to err on the side of caution. One point that would make me nervous is the lack of a Sacred Treasure (a typical long service award) so I would go for replica.

There are some Taisho and Showa era certs posted in other threads within the Japanese forum. Apologies for not getting around to posting them here in this thread.

That combination is plausible. Active service in 1900 and 1904-05 and then serving at home after that (or moved from the military into the political or civil service arena).

These were made by a wide variety of manufacturers in France and Laos so it could be due to that. It is unusual, however, since I have never seen one made like this before, they are normally one piece.

The reverse says Kumamoto Prefecture. It is definitely post war but there is no indication which organisation awards it.

It is not impossible, but he would have been pretty ancient at the end !

This is the Imperial Constitution Promulgation Medal

This is the Meiji 25th Wedding Anniversary Medal, not the Constitution Promulgation Medal.

Kryptos, You can send me a private message or email if you are interested in buying a copy of my book. It makes a great Christmas present. Cheers, Paul

The miniature 1904-05 medals are very scarce. I have not seen another since I bought this group earlier this year.

The plain red robbon is probably the French Legion of Honour. Foreign orders were originally worn before Japanese medals. The red and white ribbon is the Imperial Constitution Promulgation Medal from 1889. The last two ribbons on this group seem implausible, he would have had to be sufficiently important to get the medal in 1889 and still be knocking around in Manchuria in 1934 ! Not impossible but definitely unusual.

Lilo, If you go to Spink.com and search their catalogue archive it is Lot 935 in their medal sale on 24 April 2009. The recipient is Colonel Charles Vernon Hume. Here are his miniatures, he also has an unmounted miniature Rising Sun 3rd class.

OK, I give in. What is the condom trick ?

I have never seen a document for this medal. I doubt if there are any proper certificates, there might have been some sort of provisional cert but certainly not the large type we are used to seeing.

I should clarify my comment that the symbolism has nothing to do with Korea. The reason this unit chose that badge as their symbol has nothing to do with Korea. They chose it to symbolise their involvement in Indochina (the Yin-Yang symbol originally comes from Chinese culture so it is actually an early cultural import into both Indochina and Korea).

Just did some more digging. The badge will probably be numbered 385 on the reverse. It was originally the design of the 10th Colonial Artillery Regiment which was the same design but had 10 RAC and not 10 RAMa. The regiment changed its name to 10 RAMa in 1958. This name lasted until 1962 when it became the 10th GAMa (Groupe Artillerie de Marine)so this badge can be dated between 1958-62. The symbolism comes from the regiments involvement in Indochina and the duality of the soldier's job and has nothing to do with Korea.

I believe the ribbon was red with yellow stripes (same as the Chinese Red Cross Members medal)

This badge is probably maker marked by Drago on the reverse. Can you advise what is the address shown for them on the reverse of the badge since that can help pin down the date of manufacture. Also is there a 3 or 4 digit number (probably prefixed by the letter H or G) ? This can be tracked down to identify the year that the badge design was officially registered.

In the Japanese army a 3rd class award would normally have gone to about a colonel. I have seen awards to foreign majors and Lt Colonels of the 3rd class but if he got it as a captain then it must have been something very significant that he did.

It is entirely possible that he had both Rising Sun and Sacred Treasure. Basically the Japanese title says that he is a holder of the 3rd class order of merit. This is used to describe somebody who has a 3rd class Sacred Treasure or a 3rd Class Rising Sun. If he had both awards it would still say the same thing. Also if he had a third class of one, and a lower class of the other it would still only refer to his third class. Hence the only thing we can say for definite looking at the way his name is written on the document you showed is that he had at least one 3rd class award. We can also say that he definitely did not have anything higher than 3rd class from Japan, otherwise that would be the class of order of merit mentioned. I hope this helps.

This is a document awarding him a gold cup (most likely a presentation silver gilt sake cup), not an order or medal. However the way his name is written suggests that he has previously been awarded the 3rd class of either the Sacred Treasure or the Rising Sun (but that will be a different document).