Duncan

That's an amazing careers, thanks for sharing the photos and information.

Thanks everyone, that's really interesting. Seems the arrow head on the Vietnam Medal is quite rare after all. Is that an oak leaf on the National Defence Medal in the picture? What would that be for? Thought that medal only had campaign stars?

Does anyone have any pics of the US Vietnam Service Medal with ribbon elblems, particularly camping stars and arrow head combinations. I can't find any on google, so I assume they're a rare combination? Thanks, Duncan.

I think they've got quite a few wrong. There's another 'Ummond Paterson' listed as well as my great uncle. Unless that really is his name??? I think there was some software error that cut names short when it was closed, and now it's too much effort to correct the errors.

Yeah, it's really unacceptable. So my great uncle is forever commemorated as "Ummond Paterson"!!! I wish I'd never listed him on their website in the first place.

I spent ages downloading info on my Great Uncle onto the Imperial War Museum"s Lives of the First World War. He was Private 4121 William Drummond Paterson, Black Watch. I noticed the other day though that they've recorded him as "Ummond Paterson". I emailed them asking them to correct the mistake and got the following reply, can't say I'm very happy: Thank you for your enquiry regarding the Imperial War Museum's website 'Lives of the First World War'. The website acts as a digital memorial to the men and women who fought, whether on the home front or the front line, during WW1. When the project began in May 2014 the Imperial War Museum used seed records, such as Medal Index Cards to identify people to include in the project. I'm sorry that your great uncle's name is recorded incorrectly. The Lives of the First World War project provided a website for family, historians and researchers to add information and photographs to each record. The project closed in March 2019 and it is no longer possible to add information to the site. For help with family research the museum has put together some useful links which you can access here: Tracing your Family History Kind regards

I've had some very odd Memorial plaques over the years - kicked in the head by his horse whilst training in England; fell from a 4th floor window in Edinburgh; and accidentally shot at a rest camp in France must be the most unusual.

Thanks.

Does anyone have any idea who issued this, when and why? Oddly I can't find any info on it at all, other than a few for sale, and that it's WW2 related. Cheers Duncan.

Thanks for the info everyone.

Can someone tell me anything about these Nazi badges please? Do they relate to any specific event, date or organisation? They look quite cheaply made. Thanks Duncan.

That's fascinating, thanks.

Memorial Plaque attached to his parents grave. Not seen that before! I guess the fact it's in the Scilly Isles means it's survived, anywhere else and it would have been ripped off and sold a long time ago.

That's fantastic, thank you. Would it be WW2 related or Cold War civil defense?

I bought this recently. I know what the medal is but no idea about the two lapel badges that came with it. Anyone know what they may be for? Regards Duncan.

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

Can't get a close up I'm afraid, got the image of ebay.

Quite pleased with this one. Got it from a French seller on evil Ebay. No idea who Pierre Roussel was unfortunately. Anyone know if there's any way of finding out - like a medal roll or list of recipients?

Thanks for the info.

Thought it might be Freikorps related, but may be just a hunting award? Regards, Duncan.

Yes, it does give you the option of listing the tracking number on Ebay, which would stop this happening. There's been a few times though when I've had loads of sales all at once and I've just not had the time to list them all, or just forgot.

There seems to be a bit of an Ebay scam I thought I'd share. I'm sure people know but I thought I'd share it in case anyone gets caught out. Buyers will wait until a few days short of a month has gone past, then they'll contact you asking for the Royal Mail tracking number as they claim they'd not received their item. The last two times this has happened I've been lucky and still had the number and been able to prove they'd signed for it. Then comes the, "ohh, sorry, yeah I did receive it after all" email. One time I didn't have the number and had to refund. The first 2 were outside the EU, the refund one was within the UK. Seems people are waiting for the last day or so for them to be able to open an 'unreceived item' case against you in the hope you've not kept the tracking number, then getting a refund from eBay. Just thought I'd share that, to warn people.

Thanks for the advice everyone, that's fantastic. She also tried to say medals count as 'jewellery' so needed extra postal insurance even in the UK. I dug my heels in on that one!

I sold some of my surplus medals to someone in the US and Germany via Ebay. When I tried posting them today (from here in the UK) the woman at the post office said medals were "restricted items" and she wouldn't accept them for posting. She even read out the criteria for both countries and it clearly said banned or restricted items included "old medals". She advised I call the US embassy, and that my package may be confiscated or destroyed by US or German customs. Anyone else had this problem? It's never come up before in all my years of collecting If it's something new then it all but kills off buying, selling or swapping between collectors in different countries.

Thank you both for the information. No matter how hard I look it doesn't look like a scarf. I thought it was a body with its legs in the air!