paul wood

It's a badge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes which is an organisation akin to the freemasons and shares many of its philanthropic ideals. Some people describe as the workingman's freemasonary. The image at the front is not a ram but a buffalo. Quite fun but pretty likely to be unreasearchable. You could try the RAOB website where someone may have some information about the lodge. All the best, Paul

Very nice thing. Interestingly as research tool it is quite useful if you can get Great War parish magazines which will often give details of members of the congregation KIA or invalided home these are often available in local PROs or sometimes the church it self retains copies. An interesting if not so freely available source. Paul

Looks vaguely like the badge for the Military-Sanitary orginizations of the Imperial Russian Fire society but lacking the helmet and two fire axes base. Paul

25th anniversary of the establishment of Parish Schools, awarded to workers with no less than 10 years service. Paul

I can see no reason why not compares favourably with the illustrations in Diakov, ring hallmarked as one would expect. The medal was issued by various private firms and approx 100,000 were issued so I think you are OK but not a rare and expensive medal. Paul

The only recent book I have of the Order of St J by Charles W. Tozer, published by J. B. Hayward on behalf the O.M.R.S. in 1975 but is very much a general book but still useful. As to the lifesaving medal details of the awards are available at the Library at the Headquarters at Clerkenwell Gate. or you can write to them. They charge a small fee for citations which goes to the order. All the best, Paul

All the information is available on a roll published by John Clarke about 25? years ago taken from the Offical Soviet register with cross references to he London Gazette and yes only 4 medals for Valiant Labour were awarded for the Great Patriotic War. If no one gets it I will give the details. All the best. Paul

An easy one as I am not the greatest Soviet expert by many millions of millions of miles and Brezhnev was an inspired guess after some pretty vile Belarus vodka. How many Brtish Citizens were decorated in the years of the Great Patriotic War with Soviet Orders and Medals and name the the four recipients of the Medal for Valiant Labour and what they were involved in to receive them. Best of luck Pavel Mamut

There will be some from 1945-47 on the CWGC site. I suspect that to get a proper casualty roll one would need to go to Israel and look in the contemporary British-Palestine press archives or the Palestine Gazette which I would imagine would give details of casualties. Paul

The ribbon for the Jubilee Medal for the 20th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War is the wrong way round. Paul

Given that the piece has noticeable enamel damage and I know from personaal experience that the order damages quite easily is it possible that the piece is original but the beads are later replacements? Paul

Not L. I. Brezhnev I assume? Paul

Would help if it was accessable. All that comes up is not found and an error code. Paul

Crowns not right for Russian. Possibly pseudo-masonic? Paul

It appears to be a 7th class badge, documents for the lower grades of orders are absolute devils to find as they were usually awarded to Chinese recipients and rarely survived. Paul

It's the early Republican Order of Merit, I believe yours to be probably second class. A rare item but without seeing the reverse difficult to know if genuine. Paul

If you google images on lake Khasan there is a pretty incredible monument memorial which according to the picture has several Mongolians sitting around having a smoke. The memorial has fraternal greetings of Russian and Mongolian troops with fallen Japanese behind. Sounds like a good place to visit (and scrounge a smoke). Paul

According to Diakov "Medals of the Russian Empire" volume 4 no 459 "For the Rescue of the Drowning" not more than 15 silver medals were awarded so extremely rare. All the best, Paul

Princely Crown without the scrolls below. Paul

Grass cutter is a scarce rank but they do turn up, they were an essential part of the S&T providing fodder for horses, mules and camels a much rarer rank (and I have seen one on a bronze PF and Malkand) is a Grass Mule attendant (probably stopped the blighters eating themselves to death) Paul

As W. C. Fields said "Never give a sucker an even break."

1) Napoleon III 5 francs 1867; 2) Portugal 20 reis 1871; 3) Mexico 8 reales, 1835 St Luis de Potosi mint, silver assayer JS (Juan Sanabria). First value £10, second very little, third £20-30 Hope of help, Paul