Paul L Murphy

So what the hell were they doing in your back yard ? You need to cut the grass by the way ........

Today I bought a nice Croix de Guerre citation to a corporal in the 101st Infantry who was wounded in fighting between 1st and 5th June 1916. Does anybody have the French order of battle which will show where exactly they were serving at that time ? He was in the 6th Company and receive the C de G with bronze star for his conduct. The regimental commander was a Lt Colonel Lanusse and the regiment was part of the 247th Brigade, 124th Division, 4th Army Corps, if that helps. Many thanks. I will post a photo once I get myself properly organised ! Paul

The lock on the case is not a symbol, it is simply a lock with no cultural significance or meaning.

This is a Rising Sun 8th Class. This medal was continued after the war when Japanese orders were re-established (I cannot remember the exact date but it was in the mid 60s). The piece you have is most likely from between 1940-45 since it is in a Showa era case with silver inscription. Earlier Showa cases had a gold inscription and post war cases have a gold coloured inscription as well. You can look at the pinned topic to see the difference between Meiji and Showa era inscriptions. Hope this helps. Paul

The ban on re-export out of Russia applies to any item over 100 years old, even a humble 4th Class cross.

The tag has the numbers 6555, 25, 120. Not sure what they refer to.

$400 is very cheap for this medal. Grab it with both hands !

The ranks badge is for a Chief Corporal (Caporal-Chef) who has served between 15 and 20 years in the Legion. The three chevrons underneath the central diamond are re-enlistment chevrons, one for each five year period served. The fact that there is no unit numeral in the centre of the diamond means that the badge dates from post Indochina, they stopped putting numerals in during the mid 50's (I cannot remember the exact year but it was about 57). This is consistent with the medal ribbons. Regards, Paul

It is a commemorative badge for the China Incident dated July 1937. Unfortunately it does not name the unit.

It is very unusual to see a unit designation like "Engineers", the normal description was just x Battalion, y Brigade. In the context of the Anglo Irish War IRA, engineers would possibly have been bomb makers or else blokes who dug up roads to create barricades etc. The symbol is a representation of the cap badge, the Dublin Brigade cap badge was almost identical to the modern FF badge.

The Meiji pieces are harder to find. Japanese dealers are terrible for splitting medals and documents and selling them individually. I suspect the US dealer knew the recipient was entitled to a 6th Class GK but was not aware of the die differences since Peterson does not mention them properly.

Ed, Stop trying to tempt me I might give in Paul

Tim, I sent you an email, the pin is ok. You see various qualities with these badges. This one is the Meritorious Member's Badge. There are five different badges using this basic design, all is revelaed in my wonderful book (shameless advertising plug). Cheers, Paul

Definitely a Showa era 6th Class award. It is very common for Japanese dealers to put together groups like this since they seem to be unaware of the die differences between some of the Meiji and Showa pieces. Still a scarce award.

The gilt appearance is only caused by toning of the silver. If you wipe it witha cloth the original colour will immediately come back.

The extra roundal might be "lost in the tarnish" but I cannot see it either in the first picture. If Ed posts a close up of the centre we will know for sure.

Ed, Can you post a closeup of the centre of the Kite since I can't clearly nmake out the number of roundals. Cheers, Paul

The Japanese order he is wearing is the breast star of the Order of the Sacred Treasure. It is probably for a 1st class award, when for 2nd class it is worn on the right hand side.

"Murphy and Ackley" ...... probably related to Pancho and Lefty I do not have my book in front of me at the moment but I think from the name in Japanese that this was a forerunner to the Imperial Soldier's Relief League and we might have one of their badges illustrated (the membership badge). It is a very scarce document.

The only other possibility is the Imperial Soldier Support League cert since sometimes they will mention the former unit of the recipient.

Igor, Many thanks for the clarification. What is the number range that needs to be preceeded by No and what is the range that can be without this ? Regards, Paul

Igor It would be helpful for all concerned if you could give the reasons why you consider this to be a fake, then we can learn for future reference. Regards, Paul

Congratulations That was a good result pretty quickly.

All awards had a ribbon device, the type of device depended on the level of the citation. The lowest level was a citation in brigade orders, which got a bronze star, the highest an army citation which got a bronze palm leaf. It was never awarded without a ribbon device and the actual citation will state the level of award. The same is true for the Croix de la Valeur Militaire. Regards, Paul

I think your starting point should be the list of all recipients of the DSO prior to 1907. There is a rather large published book which has these, its exact name escapes me but it is available in Naval & Military Press. It will then be a process of eliminating any recipients of other decorations, anyone who died before 1907 as well, and anyone who was obviously entitled to campaign medals not on the bar. This should leave you with a small pool of potential names and then you can go to the level of investigating the regiments to see what matches. It should be achievable but may take a while. Given that the weather is so bad there is no reason not to stay indoors anyway !