Brian Wolfe

Hello JoyDean, Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting a great family medal. I trust this will be a keepsake to stay with your family for many more generations to treasure. Do you have any photos of your Grandad, even in civilian clothing would make a great addition to your post. Regards Brian

Mervyn, Great post and I could not agree with you more regarding his will to live. When I was a young man I spoke with a good number of WWI Vets at the local Royal Canadian Legion Branch of which I was a member. Those who had suffered a great deal of battle injury were all too tough and knew the value of life to ever have wished anything except survival. Regards Brian

I wouldn't normally show the reverse as we all seen the Special Constabulary Medal from that view. However, I don't think we've shown a Territorial Long Service medal in the section before so here's a photo of the reverse of the pair. Regards Brian

Special Constabulary Pair You are probably getting sick of reading that I like groups and pairs of medals that show service in more than one area or that span two or more monarchs but here I go saying it again anyway. This pair of medals fills the bill exactly and on more than one level. First the pair is to a member of the Territorial Forces as well as a Special Constable next the pair spans two monarchs, Edward VII and George V and finally when I checked my British Military collection I was lacking a Long Service Territorial Medal for Edward VII. So you can imagine how quickly I pounced on this pair. For the few who do not know what the Territorial Army was, in a nut shell, this is the army that served within the British Isles as opposed to the army serving overseas. The Territorial Long Service medal is named to 6088 SJT. T.S.MACKEY 1st V.B.HAMPSHIRE REGT. Please note the tag is incorrect as it leaves out the “T’” initial in his name, I will make the correction before putting it in the medals cabinet drawer. The “SJT.” is exactly what is on the medal’s rim. The Special Constabulary Medal is named to THOMAS MACKEY The Territorial Long Service Medal is for 20 years of service in the ranks while the Special Constabulary Medal is for 9 years unpaid service with more than 50 duties per year. If we are looking for the approximant years of service for this gentleman then he would have had to have been in the army 20 year before 1910 (the year Edward VII passed away) which would bring the date to 1890 and since there is no War Service clasp to the Special Constabulary medal he must have been with that force before WWI and perhaps he joined the Specials straight out of military service so that would place his total service from 1890 to 1919. However 1919 would have placed him in service during the Great War. So even adjusting his retirement from the Specials to 1913 (one year before War broke out) it would move his Special Constabulary years to between 1904 to 1913 and then his Territorial Service to 1884. All of this math is hurting my poor old brain! If my calculations are correct they we are looking for a total span of service to his country and community from 1884 to 1913. Again these could very well be inaccurate but I think it is a fair estimate. Thanks for taking a look at one of my latest additions to the collection, I hope you enjoyed it. Regards Brian

Thanks Peter. You must tell us which scabbard you need to repair otherwise the curiosity may cause us injury, ok, just me. Is this a triangular cross sectional scabbard? I have extra plastic if you need it that I can send you. I hope you will attempt the repair and post your results. Regards Brian

Thanks to all for your help and guidance. This post should be of interest to others as well, there is a lot of valuable information here, so I hope they find it as time rotates it down the list. Now to watch for a complete (with box etc.) GEAW Medal for the collection. Regards Brian

Thank you once again Nick. This type of information is important to have on the forum, who knows perhaps some day one of the members will actually find an original. Ever hear of the Lost Dutchman's Miine or Eldorado? Regards Brian

Thanks Nick, I should have known that would have been too easy. So the logical next questionis, just how do you tell on made before the surrender and the ones made afterwards? Regards Brian

Hi Nick, Thanks for the information. I must say that is was kind of the Japanese to reverse the wording on the bar (or clasp) on the post war strikings. A bit like denatzifacation of the iron cross etc. Not "exactly" like the original but close enough to get around a regulation perhaps. This makes the slight possibility of finding an original quote simple, unless someone fakes the medal complete with the correct word order. I have wanted one of these medals for some time and I always like my Japanese medals in their original box. However, the ones available all look to have been "made yesterday" for my likening so I have "passed" on any I've run onto. What I wanted was a medal I was confident had been awarded to a veteran and not one that had come from "stores" of medals in reserve or made for the collector's market. When I saw this group the first thing that stood out to me was the Allied Victory medal and then I noticed the Great East Asia War Medal. I had memorized the position of the last kanji word so I knew it was not one of the originals. Of course the price from this knowledgable dealer dictated it was not some "once in a life time group" find. However I am confident this belonged to a Japanese serviceman so that makes it special in my mind. Of course now I will want to add a nice "new" one in its box as well. Collectors, what a sick lot we are. Regards Brian

Hi Nick, Sorry no exciting story just a straight purchase. I really get sick of the usual stories on places like eBay about the item coming from a dead officer after so-and-so's uncle shot him. In Canada we don't get that "fluff and stuff" from sellers or dealers. Just as well as that only impresses beginners and younger collectors. The hanger is indeed marked and as soon as I purchase a macro lens for the camera I will revisit this post and show the mark, which is quite clear, in an extreme close up. As to the shabby appearance of the GEAW medal I would have to assume this is due as much to the material from which they were made, being a gray tin alloy, than anything else. I have no idea what the ones selling on eBay are made from and though they look mint I suspect they are newly made...I could be wrong but they do look too good to be anything but. If I had to guess I'd say the soldier added the 2600th National Anniversary Medal when he purchased the 7 place bar. I've seen this before where a medal issued was not added to a bar for quite some time for a variety of reasons. I have no way to know if the GEAW medal was one of the surviving initial 10,000 struck or one from a later striking. From the general look of the ribbon as well as the group itself I would say it was added to the group quite a long time ago. Certainly not added by the dealer, a fellow I know quite well. I should add that the China Incident Medal is quite worn through repeated polishing so it looks to be in better shape in the photo than it really is. Regards Brian

Here is the reverse. What drew me to this group was the two WWI medals, the Japanese involvement in the First World War is not well known in this part of the world and many you might mention it to would think that they had no involvement at all Regards Brian.

Hi Nick, I can get a little closer but one of the problems I have been experiencing is that when the image is "clicked on" to enlarge it the picture produced is not very much larger than the original in the post. Most of the time this is not a problem unless you want a much larger photo for viewing. When I got this group the tabs on the mount's back were bent so I straightened them and secured the medals to the tabs with some black thread to stop them from rubbing together. Even though my collection is housed in drawers the opening and closing of the drawers does cause movement of unsecured medals. I will use two posts, one for the obverse and one for the reverse. Regards Brian

Hello Mervyn A wonderful set. I do hope the membership verifies that this is a good pair to purchase. From what I can see I'd have no problems adding them to the collection, but I do look forward to reading what the more knowledgeable members have to say. Thanks for making my Sunday morning. Regards Brian

Hello Everyone, I don't post much in this section which is strange as I am a collector and "student" of Japanese culture and have been for probably close to 40 years. I guess I am a closet collector of Japanese items. Someday I'll post the whole collection but for now I wanted to show the members a seven medal group I purchased last Sunday from a private museum that is raising funs in order to purchase a new location for their displays. For the members who might visit here I will list the medals in the group starting from the viewer's left to right. Allied Victory Medal 1914-20 War Medal Taisho Enthronement Medal Showa Enthronement Medal China Incident Medal 2600th National Anniversary Medal Great East Asia War Medal The fellow I purchased this from has only a few Japanese items, concentrating mainly on British Empire. I also purched several British medals and other items which pretty well cleaned out my collecting bank account, but as any collector knows, when it comes to a choice of money in the bank or medals in the collection, medals always win hands down. Regards Brian

Mervyn, I am so glad to see you are back writing in the Blog section. Thank you for posting this in the Blog section where as many as possible will read this most interesting history. Would it be possible to also post this in the regular section of the GMIC as it needs to be preserved so those researching the forum will find it at a later date. As always, well done Mervyn. Regards Brian

As they say, "Better late than never". Thanks for posting this informational piece. Regards Brian

Hello Blueman, A very nice helmet and the price is something most just dream of. Well done on a great purchase that will only increase in value with time. Hello Mike, Thanks for posting the history it was extremely interesting, not only to explain the location of the second badge but as an informational piece all on it's own. Well done...again. Regards Brian

Many thanks Mervyn, as usual you are too kind. Regards Brian

Thanks Ian, the Stafofrdshire scabbard seems to have been repaired using brass shims and the sword gets stuck behind one side of the shim if a lot of care replacing it is not exercised. This is not to say brass shims are a bad idea as this problem can happen with any material used. Regards Brian

Here are a couple of photos of a curved sword scabbard that was repaired a long time ago, probably when it was still being used. I would not be surprised if they have used thin pieces of wood or perhaps leather in the repair as the sword must be put into the scabbard in just the right way otherwise it is stopped by some obstruction. The sword for the repaired straight scabbard encounters no obstruction and one would never know it had been broken without an inspection of the exterior of the scabbard itself. I’m not bragging (ok, perhaps a little vanity has sneaked in) but I mention it in support of modern materials opposed to the old methods available “back in the day”. In the case of a curved scabbard I would use a similar approach as the straight scabbard except I’d use two pieces of flat plastic cut to the same curve as the scabbard to be repaired and one glued to each flat surface. This should provide sufficient support. I hope this article encourages others to attempt repairs of their own, most of the time it’s just a matter of thinking about different options and having the nerve to give it a go. Just remember almost everything can be repaired with the exception of the weather and government. Regards Brian

Now there's a challenge! I've seen some really bad repairs over the years on dealers' tables. The worst was a broken scabbard that had the broken area only simply wrapped in electrical tape and then the whole scabbard sprayed with black paint. Lets us know how this progresses if you decide to restore the scabbard. Regards Brian

Thanks Tony. Regards Brian

I almost hate top admit it, but, to me, this is exciting stuff! Perhaps I need to get out more. It's not often that something like this comes along; to be able to see two perspectives of the same event in pre-war history especially at the same location. I'm looking forward to your scan. Regards Brian

Here's the other side. I'll run a couple of photo of that Staffordshire sword scabbard repair I mentioned earlier that I believe was done many years ago and possibly when it was still being used by the police.

Here's a closer view of one side of the scabbard repair. Note the "hook" I mentioned earlier.