Brian Wolfe

Hello Hoyden,

A few years ago I met a book binder from the "old school" and he used only authentic materials and his presses and other equipment was hundreds of years old. Colour of leather, type and even the way it was tanned he controlled by doing it himself.

Up until I read your last post the people I have on me hero worship list had one less on it.

That is absolutely amazing and worthy of great praise.

My hat is off to you.

Regards

Brian

Hello Hoyden,

What an indepth post with very impressive research.

Who would have thought that, with my morning coffee, I would get such a fine education in uniforms of the era?

Many thanks.

Regards

Brian

Hi Colin,

I just found this post and I must say I am glad I did.

What a wonderful and amazing talent you possess.

Thank you very much for the postings.

Regards

Brian

Hi dante,

This is a period of history I find very interesting and I do have a small number of badges in the German section of my collection. However, I must say that you have rekindled my interest in the Freikorps.

Thank you for posting your fine collection.

Regards

Brian

From the demonstrations I've seen I think you are correct that this form of self-defence is indeed based (copied?) from the weapons systems of the East. Stick and staff fighting is nothing new to most of us of course but the idea of using a cane may be new to many of the elderly who could find themselves in need of a "legal" weapon at times. I regret that I don't recall the French name for this style otherwise one could probably find videos on the internet.

Regards

Brian

In my opinion the Dieppe clasp was over the top, and not in a good sense. The name "Dieppe" would have been enough but then it looks like an adolescent competition winner's entry was accepted for the design.

The Hong Kong bar is much better with the HK in an oriental style between the two words. I think there is a fine like between good taste and junkly, which I think the Dieppe bar is. The Bomber Command may be understated but better that than trashing it out with a lot of other printed words or symbols.

I've included an example of the Hong Kong bar which, going by the source of this medal and bar, is an original.

Regards

Brian

Hi Mervyn,

Just to be clear on my point. The fighting method currently taught in France uses one the walking stick and no additional weaponry. This keeps the user within the bounds of the law. In my opinion the techniques taught require much more agility than many of us of my age and older have.

On a lighter note:

As you know, we here at the Home Office always try to accomodate the needs of the membership. In that vein we are working on a new design for a walking stick that we hope to be presenting to MI-6 for use by Mr. Bond in the near future.

Regards

Brian Wolfe

Director of the Home Office (Ontario)

Photo compliments of Mervyn Mitton.

Personally I think the design has an understated elegance about it. The clasp for overseas service is a silver maple leaf and the addition of a bar shouting the fact that the wearer was a member of bomber command would be crass. Not to say that all bars sporting the name of the battle or area of service is crass, far from it. However to mix the two styles certainly runs the risk of looking trashy.

It would be difficult to have used recognizable symbols on other clasps of the past and the one that comes to mind would be the Africa Star. With the different clasps, 1^st Army, 8^th Army and North Africa 1942-43 the use of a symbol would have been quite confusing indeed for any member of the public seeing the medal worn by the recipient. I think the same would be true with any of Campaign Medals of the Second World War that qualified for a clasp. The clasp taking the place of a second medal for whichever campaign the clasp represented.

As to using the image of bombs is concerned I believe this would have been met with a great deal of criticism. As I have mentioned before on this forum there was a short lived movement in Canada during the mid 1970s condemning the bombing of German cities by Bomber Command, this included the RCAF of course. Many of the WWII bomber crew members were left feeling betrayed by these people who had never sacrificed the smallest part of their comfortable lives to serve their country. There were even documentaries made and featured on television voicing the concerns of these sheltered and pampered members of our society. In my opinion, the inclusion of the images of bombs would not have set well with the veterans; this view being based on the many Canadian Air Force crews I knew while growing up.

The last point I would make is that the Airmen were not “in love” with the ordnance they carried but with the aircraft itself. So many times I’ve heard the praises, and occasionally the complaints, of this aircraft or that aircraft; never the attributes of a bomb.

I, for one, fully support the choice of the lone bomber on the clasp. It is an elegant and dignified tribute to all those who served their country in those dark days of the Second World War.

Respectfully submitted,

Brian.

There is a whole system of fighting with the walking stick taught in France. This is much like the stick fighting shcools of the East but designed for modern street defence. Of course it is usually the older members of our society who require the use of a cane but one can just imagine the suprised look on some street hoodlum's face when granny leaves him sitting on the sidewalk with his head "ringing".

When I require a cane I think I will attach a 12 ga. shotgun to it, saves a lot of dojo time.

Regards

Brian

This style was used by many armies in the 1800s but the ones I have seen and owned were unmarked.

I hope one of the members will recognize the marking.

Very nice sword.

Regards

Brian

Always a matter of individual preference, however, I would not touch it.

In the end it is up to you.

Regards

Brian

Officially the answer is no, one can not qualify for both.

The reality,in my opinion, is that yes, it has happened and I have such an example of a group in my own collection.

Perhaps it is a matter of the recipient being awarded both more by official "accident" than anything. Maybe he was in both the UK and then in India though the war and was then awarded both.

Some, probably most, collectors would say this is impossible but oviously the groups exist.

I'm sure the debate will continue.

Regards

Brian

I hope Mervyn will jump in here, however until he does, he has told me that the colour is usually red and sometimes dark purple. Unless this actually symbolizes something out of the ordinary (Irish Constabulary perhaps?) I would say someone repaced the missing material with whatever was at hand. I replaced the missing velvet on a tipstaff of the same style as yours with red after consulting Mervyn, so I know people will do this to complete an artifact.

Regards

Brian

"no longer with GMIC"

As far as I know Ed is still alive

Yes, quite alive and well.

Brian

Hello Adler 1,

A very nioce addition and thank you for posting photos for all to see.

Regards

Brian

It could go either way but lets hope they do put a limit on the awarding, otherwise it means little.

This should probably be moved to the section containing "India" but lets see who responds here first and I'll move it later.

Regards

Brian

I was taking a chance with such a blunt statement and I'm glad no one "called" me on it. The problem is not with these organizations but with the governing bodies who will spend millions on a study of moose droppings (I just made that up, surely there is no such study) rather than perserving our Canadian heritage. When I become Prime Minister ...

I am a strong supporter of the private collector but some items really should go to museums so that as many people as possible can view them.

The late Mr. Ursuall is to be commended on his efforts to secure De Saleberry's MGS for the MWM. For the medal collectors who just might be reading this post and not know about this dealer, his wife Tanya continues with the business and her site can be found at, Medals of War, through your search engine (Google for example). I highly recommend this dealer.

Regards

Brian

Hi Jean-Paul,

Thanks for an interesting and informative post.

I am assuming that the CCHP people "objected" but never offered to purchase the medal from the dealer in the UK? I suppose that's typical.

Bottom line is that "all's well that ends well".

I'm glad it is back in Canada.

Regards

Brian

So now we have an answer.

Thanks Ed.

Regards

Brian

I too would be intersted in hearing what others have to say on this question. The one thing that comes to mind is that most, if not all, fine hunting weapons that could take down an elephant wouid not stand up to the dust, mud and water found in many battlefield conditions. We know that weapons made to very fine tollerences need far too much maintenance for the average soldier to keep in top working order, no offence intended.

Ok you WWI fellows, weigh in here and let us know the facts.

Regards

Brian

Peter,

You are always the gentleman, you never even mentioned that I was standing on a chair, and even then the Brown Bess I was holding was well over my height .

Rick,

A lot people this year have had brain melt, the difference is that too many of them let it run out of their mouths.

Needless to say I look up to your both (see first comment).

Regards

Brian

We have but we were missed in our communities while away. The census had to be adjusted because of the large percentage of residents were missing, and have therefore asked that we give notice before being adsent.

It's like living in the "Shire" and from your location notice, "There...and back again" you must know that when one of the hobbitses are away the others start rumours that an adventure is afoot. And we know how Hobbits hate adventure.

Regards

Brian

I must ask you about this Epson thing some day.

We still talk about the tourist boom of 2010. I had no idea that was you.

Because of your visit the beer store is now open Sunday.

Regards

Brian

You were correct, I did indeed enjoy seeing more of your collection.

Many thanks.

Regards

Brian

In the past few decades the Chinese have indeed been making copies of the older Katanas in addition to the WWII Naval and Army swords.

The members posting before me have called this one correctly, a copy from China, so I am really only adding my "vote" that it is a copy.

Regards

Brian