Megan

A sad loss indeed. Medals are no consolation, yet show what his sacrifice meant to the nation on whose behalf he fought, by his own choice. If only Russia had not invaded Ukraine, such tragedies would not have happened. So many lives could still be being lived, Ukrainian and Russian alike as well as those who stepped up to support a sovereign nation in the face of aggression.

The difference between the Grand Cross star and the Class 1 star was that the Grand Cross one had gold rays as 4 of the 8 rays of the star. Here's one I pinched from my website, sorry about the small size - the HQ images are on another computer! 1933-1937 emission.

These fellows have quite the collection of awards... The last one is wearing the sash and star of a Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and the Commander of the Order of St Michael & St George (CMG, neck badge).

Great to see the version for wearing in uniform, the civil one on rectangular mount is more often seen... thank you for sharing.

Has anyone got an image of the Order for Meritorious Service, Silver please? And did that also have a star or was the star only for the Order for Meritorious Service, Gold?

I can confirm that no batons were used at the 1969 Investiture.

Great stuff. The imagery on the first one is fantastic, really captures the socialist ideal of everyone working together to mutual benefit 🤓

Jock, please keep your political opinions to yourself. This whole board, and certainly this thread, is for talking about militaria. I come here to discuss medals. I too have strong opinions about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but I talk about those in more appropriate places and do not intend to discuss them here, thank you.

Nice find... and in good condition too. Best I ever got out of a skip was a set of Latin books that enabled me to teach myself Latin! Oh, and an oscilloscope that still worked.

Tasty.🤓

Good point, Paddywhack.

It seems that some people approach medal awarding as my mother approached decorating a Christmas tree - the more the merrier! It is proving a bit of a nightmare to track and document everything that's being handed out, however. I'm just grabbing what information I can and hoping that I can make some kind of sense of it all.

The actual decoration is called the Military Medal. Instituted on 25 March 1916 and awarded to other ranks (i.e., non-officers) of the Army and Royal Air Force for acts of bravery in the field. (Non-flying acts, as far as RAF members were concerned.) It was discontinued in 1993 when all ranks became eligible for the Military Cross, previously only awarded to officers for similar acts. It would normally be named - yours may be unissued or a tailor's copy.

What is the Krayina website? All I found was an Ukrainian insurance company... the word in Ukrainian (Країна) means "country" or "land". There's also a vinyard (in Ukraine) using that name for a tasty sounding white wine! I have found a weekly magazine called Країна published in Kyiv, wich deals with socio-political issues, but I've only found lists of issues, not a website.

More beautiful things... I particularly like the Red Cross ones on lady's bows! Thank you for sharing!