Brian Wolfe

This is the reverse of the cross and a closeup of Private Pedro. He was killed right after D-day and looked much as he does in his photo at the time of his death.

My second cross is from the Second World War and commemorates my wife's uncle: 35003 George M Pedro, Private Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders Killed in action, 9 July, 1944

This is a view of the reverse of the cross and a closer view of Private Willis. You can almost see the effect the front has had on him during the year he served at the front.

The first cross commemorates the death of: 751750 James Willis, Private 1st Canadian Infantry Killed in action, 6 DEcember, 1917

Hello Everyone, The Canadian Memorial Cross was issued to wives and mothers of servicemen who had died during World War One, instituted in December 1919 with a second version introduced in August 1940 for servicemen who died in the Second World War. The difference being the Royal cypher. The cross is made of silver and measures 32mm in width. A 11mm violet ribbon was included with the cross which was presented in a box. Later versions starting in the rein of George VI and then continuing throughout the rein of Elizabeth II to the present day had a suspension bar. Both examples I am presenting have their original boxes which I will photograph and show at the end of the post. First is a certificate to the organization known as the Silver Cross Women. This was a group of Memorial Cross recipients who worked in the local area to assist mothers and wives who had lost loved ones in the war. This certificate was for the Waterloo County Chapter (Cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario); they received their charter in 1949. When the local Royal Canadian Legion in Kitchener reloctated this ended up as trash and I rescued it from the bin before it became land fill at the garbage dump. The writing is very faded and I don't know if you can make it out. I think this is an interesting and important local artifact, too bad the Legion members did not feel the same. Regards Brian

My last photo is the right hand lower side. I'll post a better photo of the whole Honour Roll after I get it framed, as I said I don't want to keep rolling and unrolling it. I hope you liked this artifact. Regards Brian

Right hand side top.

Left hand side bottom.

Here is a photo of the two rows of names on the left hand side at the top.

Here is a better shot of the top of the document.

Roll of Honour for the Metropolitan SC, F Division Sub C, Nottinghill. Here is an item that came in a short while ago and has been in the mailing tube ever since. It is quite fragile and the first photo is not very good but I don't want to unroll it again until it is ready to be framed. The rest of the photos are quite clear and the whole document is shown in sections. There is a date on the bottom left hand corner of 1917 in conjunction with a Sub Inspector's name but because it shows the 1918 Long Service Medal on the left hand border I believe this was printed after the Great War. To my knowledge these were pretty well always printed after the War. In some cases the rank is given and in some other cases the regimant they served in is listed. It would be a monumental task to research all of these soldiers and one that may have to wait until I retire so I can find the time. I hope you like it and perhaps will be of intertest to some collectors as far as the names for research purposes. Regards Brian

Hello Everyone, The latest addition to my Staffordshire Plice collection is this 19mm pin commemorating 50 years of women in the Staffordshire Police Service. The pin is held on by the usual means of a spike with a leaf spring grip and has the dates 1945 to 1995. The Staffordshire 150th Commemorative publication has this to say,"In the County resistance to the appointment of Policewomen was ended in 1944 when six women constables were appointed". However the first Policewomen (2) were appointed in Staffordshire to the Stoke-on-Trent Borough Police in 1921. It took until 1976 until female officers were no longer restricted to what had been considered a traditional role for policewomen and are now represented in every branch of the service. Regards Brian

Hello Rich, I think that the term "rare" is very subjective, even "scarce" is a term for debate. Prices are always thought to follow supply and demand. This is not true for many objects in our consumer based society. It's down to "I have one, you don't and what will you pay to own one?" I've said many times that if you purchase medals as an investment then please be sure to live 100 years. Better to put you money into property not bits of medal. Sure the prices will probably go up but just how many "rare" medals would you have to purchase to really show a substancial profit? Collecting is all about history and the Boxer Rebellion is dripping with history. It's more than just the expedition it's everything that lead up to it and followed after. Holding a piece of history in your hands has a value far out reaching the rarity. Perhaps we need to stay away from the term rare and use uncommon, compaired to, shall we say, the WWI Victory medal (I'm talking British Victory Medals). I will agree with you 100% that the Boxer Rebellion may be common (ie. not rare) but "I have one, you don't". I am saying this in jest and it is not pointed at you or any member, it was said purely for humour. With luck I won't have a dozen members post their Boxer Rebellion Medals with a nasty remark. One has to be so careful not to give insult on the internet. So much clearer and friendly in person. Regards Brian

I have not started collecting the documents but that will probably be next. I've just started to collect Japanese Medals after thinking about it for years. What was I waiting for? Regards Brian

Here is the view of the back. It is intact and I'm pretty sure an original Imperial German artifact. Thanks again for your direction. Regards Brian

Hello Everyone. While out on a rainy Saturday venture to the Fabric Store with my wife we stopped in at a local Antiques Mall to have a look around. At this particular mall there is a dealer who usually has prices around 50% over market but once in a while he will hide a reasonably priced little gem among the over priced items. At times there is even a deal in his display case. I think it is done to keep you coming back to check out his wares. This little three place ribbon bar caught my eye and the price was also attractive so I purchased it. I believe the ribbons are: Prussian Iron Cross, Bavarian Order of Military Merit with Swords and the Honour Cross. I am going by a ribbon chart on a ribbon dealer's web site regarding the Military Merit ribbon. I've purchased from this ribbon dealer before and I think he is accurate with his chart. What do the members think about the middle ribbon? Am I correct? Thanks for your assistance, it is always appreciated. Regards Brian

An excellent example. Nice find, thanks for posting it. Regards Brian

Confession time. I was the winning bidder and I think it would have went higher except the seller will not take Pay Pal. Since this is within Canada (seller in Quebec and I in Ontario) a Postal Money Order is not a problem. I will say this is an item that was on my "bucket list" (check out the movie) and that's all I'll say on that, so the price was not really a factor. Given the numbers involved in the boxer rebellion from Japan, 18 Warships, 540 Marines and 20,300 soldiers it is scarcer than many medals. Given the number of Bronze British War Medals (WWI) is at 110,00 the Japanese Boxer Rebellion Medal should be harder to find and you don't see a lot of bronze BWMs. Although as far as the Boxer Rebellion goes it should be the most common considering the number awarded for each country. The UK had about half the number of men involved. Anyway I hope to have it in my hands in a couple of weeks. Regards Brian

Hi Paul and Dieter3, Just to wrap this up, it closed at $406.00 I hope this doesn't actually wrap up the topic I was just meaning the question regarding this particular medal. I don't know if the members are aware of the Boxer Rebellion or not but what an interesting bit of history that I hope everyone will take the time to read about. Regards Brian

Hi Tony, Thanks. I hope you locate yours and post it. I'm sure these are common enough that several members have them and I hope they will take the time to post. These are an interesting and integral part of life at the front, making them a true artifact of the Great War. Regards Brian

Here is the message he wrote to his son. I have tried to post these in some sort of order for you to look at and I have left this one for last for a reason. It seems that at this point he was starting to really miss his children and left a long message, long for him that is. What caused him to do this was known only to him but the card is dated April 3 1917, he was killed while at the front in December of the same year. This was the last message that he ever sent to his son. While researching this soldier I found many such documents that leads me to think he had a rather sad life and photos of him before the War and at the front near the time of his death shows a man who was broken in spirit. Sometimes when you look for the truth it is not what you would like to have found. Thanks for taking a look at this long post. Regards Brian

It must be late, I forgot the image.

This is the last card in the collection from this soldier. He has purchased this for his son's birthday and written quyite a bit on the back which was out of character for him.

Here is what is written on the back of this card. At least he says "from father with love..." so he is not totally without emotion. :rolleyes:

This is a particularly interesting card for a couple of reasons. As can be seen it has the dates 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917, when it was made and then purchased. Note that the "7" in the date 1917 is made of the American Stars and Stripes which would commemorate the entry into the War by the U.S.A. I never mentioned that these all came from France but as may be seen here that fact is clearly stated in the lace work. The card reads "To my dear mother" yet the message on the back is to his son. I'll show that next. This is the other interesting thing about this card. His personality, from my research, showed that he was not a very sentimental fellow and the fact that the card was meant to be sent to a soldier's mother yet he purchased it to send to his son would support this. I would think he purchased the lace card and gave no thought to the small paper card inside. This is not to condemn the man it is just a statement that supports what I found out from his family members about him when I researched his life.