dpk

Possibly could fit under the Mervyn Mitton banner as a sub-folder?? That way those who have no interest in the police area will probably never see it but anyone who glances at the 'Mervyn' police pages will have it available in front of them. The issue of course is the extra work it will create for moderators etc.

I would be a definite candidate- I know of a couple of others who would almost certainly also be regular participants.

In the Western Australia Police, there was a truism which went 'The reason they give you a number is so they don't have to remember your name'.

Interesting- if the Reverse was translated from English to Welsh, 'For Exemplary Police Service' would appears as something like 'Ar Gyfer Enghreifftiol Gwasanaeth Heddlu'. (according to an online translator). 

And here it is:

Re the topic '1935 Jubilee Medal', I have an example with an engraved naming on the lower rim of 'SUPT.. D. McFARQUHAR, 6.5.35'. I suspect this is a privately added naming but would be keen to identify who the named person was. Any ideas on where to start?

David

All Australian States issue medals to their police, at least for long service but also for a range of other issues such bravery, meritorious service etc etc. As far as I am aware, only Western Australia sought and received permission at the national level, to wear their state-issued medals on the left breast after the medals of the national Australian Honours & Awards System and before foreign awards unless otherwise specified.

Ah, Gongz, it is just unthinkable that the Irish would do away with bars. They would have to fight in the street... 

Bronze. There are also duplicates seen for sale occasionally but getting an original seems to be almost impossible.

I saw 4 of these in one Lot for sale about 18 months ago at a UK auction (DNW I think but don't quote me) and they were estimated at £40 each, finally went for something like £90 each! There will be a box of junk from an old Irish medal mounting shop in an attic out there somewhere worth about a million dollars!

All of the 1901 and 1903 'Visit To Ireland' medals issued to Irish police at the time had a top brooch bar with Shamrock decorations. However, very many of those medals seen for sale now do not have that bar. Where have they all gone?

The bars themselves very rarely appear at auction and fetch a very high price- about £60 to £80 each last I saw. Does any one know where they might be available, as I need 2 of them to complete a couple in my collection? Also keen to understand why so many are missing from the medals.

Hope to hear!

DPK

On close review of the Hagan medal naming, it seems that the rank and name are in a smaller font very similar or identical to the British issues naming style, but his registered police number seems to be the same font but larger- meaning the number was probably added by the issuing Australian force after receiving the named medal from the UK??

See above for example to 'Insp. W.P. Hagan' of Western Australia Police Force- not sure if the Hagan medal was named locally (in Australia) and thus included his rank, or if it came named like that from the UK.

Re my earlier post on the 1973 Western Australia Police Force ranks- having re-read my post I see that red wine and age has affected me more than I had realised. On reflection the ranks were Probationary Constable, Constable, First Class Constable, Senior Constable, 3rd Class Sergeant, 2nd Class Sergeant, 1st Class Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, Chief Superintendent, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner.

For what it's worth!

Hi All,

Just wondering if there are any opportunities to set up a dedicated forum for those interested in collecting police medals to advertise medals for sale/buy medals(probably UK/Colonies at first but maybe expanded to other police jurisdictions later)?

The reason I ask is that I live in Australia but collect UK & Colonial Police Medals- and hunting those that are for sale via internet or various clubs etc is a real task- looking for the needle in a large series of haystacks! Australian auctions of this type of medal are few and far between, UK auctions more plentiful but an 8 hour time lag can be difficult, and UK auction commissions/VAT are a real killer!

Look forward to hearing any ideas or suggestions.

Best regards

Dave Picton-King

Hi All,

I know that Australian Police Officers also served in a policing role in Cyprus. Not sure if they were seconded to the Cyprus Police or part of a United Nations deployment. Several men in my own force served there, I don't recall any of them wearing ribbons for the GSM but that is not definite- they may have either a GSM or possibly a UN Medal.

Hi BJoW,

Each Australian Police Force has a 'Historical Society', almost all sponsored by the Commissioner but run by volunteers. They have access to the Force service records for retired members, and sometimes serving members. They are invariably helpful, and sometimes have detailed records of a recipient. However, not always. In the 'Wilhelm' example above all I could get was his date of birth, date of joining, date of retirement and date of death- nothing else at all on his file about where he was posted or what he did. I vaguely knew his name when I was in the job, I think he was the lockup keeper at Perth for a while but that's not certain.

Inquiries with the force itself are almost always met with refusal on privacy grounds.

The Australian issues of the Police LS&GC Medal are few and far between on the market here. Not sure of how many were issued in the 1956 to 1976 period but there must be hundreds- where they are is a mystery. Probably held by family etc due to the relative recency of issue, recognising almost all recipients would now be aged or no longer with us.

It is the same with most Australian Police medals- hardly ever see genuine ones on the market. One problem is that there are many, many very good accurate replica/copy/replacements for these for sale and most are extremely like the originals- sometimes very hard to tell some of them apart. The only rule of thumb I use is close examination of the naming. The older PLSGC medal (the UK one) is impressed in the usual style but almost all medals awarded to Australian police since 1974 (introduction of the purely Australian Honour & Awards System) are pantograph engraved.

Examples- a Victoria Police Long Service & Good Conduct Medal, and a National Medal For Service shown below:

I would not buy an unnamed example of any Australian Police Medal unless I had solid gold provenance, due to the quality of repro/copies out there.

Hi All- regarding Australian Police ranks, they were different from State to State- each force having some ranks quite differently named in each State, some ranks the same title and many of these were different from the UK ranks.

Australian rank titles have also changed over the years- example is my State, Western Australia. When I joined in 1973 the ranks, from the bottom up were:

Probationary Constable, Constable, First Class Constable, Senior Constable, Sergeant, First Class Sergeant, Second Class Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, Chief Superintendent, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner.

When I retired in 2015 the ranks were, Probationary Constable, Constable, First Class Constable, Senior Constable, Sergeant, Senior Sergeant, Inspector, Superintendent, Commander, Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner.

Other States had more mysterious ranks such as 'Leading Senior Constable', 'Incremental Senior Constable' etc etc. Good site for details is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_police_ranks

Re the naming style of the Police LSGC medal to Australian Police, between 1956 and 1976 while the medal was available to Australian Police Forces, I have one example and naming is shown below- it seems to be impressed in the same style as UK issues. It may therefore have been 'ordered' from the UK and named there before presentation in Australia. Picture below:

Hi All,

I am sure you are all aware of the change of manufacturer for this medal- it had been the Royal Mint from 1919 until about 1995 or 1996, when the contract went to the Birmingham Mint (Paul Brewster's excellent book 'For Faithful Service', OMRS 2019 tells the full story of this medal). The Birmingham Mint versions were slightly different from all those pictured here which are Royal Mint issues. The Birmingham versions has a slight 'stouter' suspension claw and 'softer' looking obverse with details just a little less sharp. Image attached to illustrate the two. The contract returned to the Royal Mint in 2007 but Brewster believes the medals it issued from that date did not return to the original high quality of their earlier issues. 

In 2018 it was announced the contract was to be awarded to Worcester Medals but I haven't yet been able to identify any issues made by them. Be interesting to see if they are different again!

Further to previous- there are now two additional EIIR obverses for the (1919) Special Constabulary Long Service Medal. The first was when the manufacture of the medal switched from the Royal Mint to the Birmingham Mint in about 1995. The Birmingham Mint version had a slightly less distinct or 'softer' look than the Royal Mint version, and it had a quite different suspender claw. Images show the Birmingham as a heavier style with more vertical claws while the Royal Mint version has a smaller 'barrel' and thinner more horizontal claws.

I believe Birmingham Mint lost the contract back to the Royal Mint in 2007 and it is said the Royal Mint versions from that time were of a 'lesser' quality than their earlier medals. Apparently the Royal Mint lost the contract again in 2018 to Worcester Medals, although I have not seen either the 2007-2018 Royal Mint versions or the Worcester Medals versions.

Absolute best reference re theses medals is Paul Brewster's great book 'For Faithful Service' published by OMRS.

I also noticed this- not only the placement of 'Const' is unusual (never seen it there), the quality of the impressed letters seems rough. It may be the light or condition of the medal but the impressions seem to be a little rough or 'jagged' on their edges- all others I have seen are a smooth and almost polished look. The earlier cupro-silver or cupro-nickel versions still haved a very smooth naming style while the later rhodium-plated versions are almost mirror-polished.  Have attached images of a rhodium and cupro version for comparison.

Is it possible the ebay offering is an unnamed version acquired by someone and later named, or a dodgy offering?

OMRS has just released a new publication- "A Guide: Medals & Awards to British Police by Local Authorities of the United Kingdom. Covers over 110 medals & awards issued by Counties, Cities and Borough of the UK to their police. Over 260 colour plates adn believed to cover all the awards issued. Hopefully a very good reference to collectors. Available from the OMRS (UK) online shop.

OMRS (UK) has just published a new medal book: 'A Guide: Medals & Awards to British Police by Local Authorities of the United Kingdom'. Covers over 110 medals and awards issued by UK Counties, Cities and Boroughs to their police forces- believed to be a complete coverage of this genre of medal and award. Over 260 colour plates. Available at the OMRS on-line shop.

I am a retired Western Australia Police Force officer and I know that members of Australian State and Commonwealth police forces served in Cyprus under the auspices of the United Nations. They were also (retrospectively) eligible for the Police Overseas Service Medal which is an Australian national award introduced in 1991.