Carol I

You're welcome, James. Thanks for the addition. I suspected a mistake in the records or at least a mis-labelling. I am not surprised. The badge lived through the communist years when everything related to the royals was hidden from view in special deposits. And, given the date of the award, the badge even saw the 1917-1918 refuge with probably less than optimal depositing conditions. As a matter of fact, some time ago I read an entry in King Carol II's diary regarding an inventory of the awards of his predecessors he did in the end of the 1930s when he found that most of his great uncle's awards were missing. He did not blame the refuge, but there is a strong possibility that some awards were misplaced or lost during those years.

The second class badge (the second one posted) is suspicious.

That one is attributed to Nicolae Titulescu.

Order of St. Sava with brilliants (Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) Attributed to Queen Maria

Order of St. Isabella (Portugal) Attributed to Queen Maria

Order of the Two Orders (Portugal) Attributed to King Ferdinand

Order of the Three Orders (Portugal) Attributed to King Ferdinand

Order of the Sun of Peru Attributed to King Ferdinand. Judging by the width of the sash, it might have been conferred to Queen Maria.

Osmanie Order (Ottoman Empire) Attributed to King Ferdinand

Order of the Netherlands Lion Attributed to King Ferdinand

Order of the Precious Crown (Japan) Attributed to Queen Maria

Order of the Chrysanthemum (Japan) Attributed to Queen Maria. Judging by the width of the sash, it might have been conferred to King Ferdinand.

Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (Japan) Attributed to Queen Maria. Could it have been conferred to King Ferdinand?

Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy) Attributed to King Ferdinand

Collar of the Order of the Annunciation (Italy) Attributed to King Ferdinand

Order of the Crown of India Attributed to Queen Maria

Order of the Virtues (Egypt) Attributed to Queen Maria

Collar of the Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia) Attributed to King Ferdinand

Here are images of some rare orders conferred to King Ferdinand and Queen Maria of Romania. Order of Elizabeth (Austria) Attributed to Queen Maria

Here is a Medal of Honour of the Armed Forces in the collections of the National History Museum of Romania. I wonder how it got there.

Claudiu Chira was posthumously promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and was awarded the knight's cross of the Order of the Star of Romania with wartime insignia. Sources: The Ministry of Defense and the Office of the President

Junior Staff Sgt. Claudiu Chira (30) was killed today in Afghanistan. He was on patrol at about 50 km from Qalat when his vehicle was blown up by an improvised explosive device. Press release from the Ministry of National Defence (Romanian language): http://www.mapn.ro/cpresa/continuarearhiva.php?id=12878

1. I think you could ask directly at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whether it would be possible to do research in their archives. Contact information is available on their site. 2. Old issues of Monitorul Oficial have not been digitised as far as I know, so you would have to contact a major library (like the National Library) in order to consult their collections. 3. The London Gazette (as well as the Edinburgh and Belfast issues) has been digitised and one could consult old issues at www.gazettes-online.co.uk.

As for most of the other Romanian orders, there is no official list of recipients for the Order of the Crown of Romania. However, information should be available in principle from at least three sources: the archives of the old Chancellery of Orders (at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Monitorul Oficial (the official government journal) and the British equivalent (London Gazette?).

The diary of the Romanian minister of the time, Grigore Gafencu, has recently been published and I presume it contains details about what happened after the declaration of war. Anyhow, the personel of the Romanian Embassy in Moscow was evacuated through Turkey. In the summer of 1944, the Romanian minister in Berlin was a Germanophile who issued an order that recommended to all the personel under his authority not to recognise the new Romanian government and its decisions. Those who did comply with this order were placed under house arrest, pending the decision of the German authorities. As they could not be exchanged on the front line with their German counterparts, about 200 Romanians were then sent to special concentration camps in Germany and Austria (Krumhubel, Ramingstein and Maria Worth). In May 1945 they were liberated by the Allies and sent to Italy. Later, some of them returned to Romania, while others left for other countries.