Duncan

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. 

4 hours ago, graham said:

Interesting website: -

https://oshawamuseum.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/dead-mans-penny-memorial-death-plaque/

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. 

On 24/07/2019 at 03:37, Bayern said:

Try here , www bddm.org/ a French Fundation for the Memory of the Deportation and Internement during WW2

Thanks, I'll give it a go. 

14 hours ago, dond said:

What is that mark on the back? Can you please do a close up?

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. 

12 hours ago, Egorka said:

Hello, 

But is not the tracking number recorded in eBay system after you post? 

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! 

I always thought this medal was for members of a WW2 partisan unit called the Garibaldi Brigade. Looking on google though I think though I may be wrong and that the Garibaldi Brigade was in fact from the Spanish Civil War and this medal was for members of that unit for the Spanish civil War. Can anyone enlighten me? 

Also, what on earth is the image on the obverse supposed to be? 

Regards 

Duncan. 

Hello, thank you for taking time to answer. I think I found her in the London Gazette under OBEs awarded - regional organiser for the WVS. After that the trail goes cold, too many people of the same name for a positive BMD identification. 

Thanks again for your help. 

Regards 

Duncan. 

10 hours ago, lone wolf said:

You can connect with Terrence he is based out of UK and goes by name Boer to Korea at eBay.

Thanks for the advice. 

Hi, anyone know if there's a WVS Long Service Medal roll available? I have one, plus the award letter to a Mrs Hooper. Would be good to add some more details to it. 

Thank you, 

Duncan. 

Hi, thanks for that. I was hoping to find a UK dealer as needed the ribbons pretty fast. I can find plenty of Pakistani ribbons, but very few Indian.