paul wood

This was a nice Emden related group which turned up at Dix Noonan and Webb in 2008. I would have thought the MSM group would probably make considerably more.

Paul

Click to Zoom

Back to Search Results/CatalogueLot 1546Date of Auction: 25th September 2008

Sold for £5200

Estimate: £1,800 - £2,200

A fine ‘long service’ group of eight medals awarded to Leading Seaman R. F. Grimley, Royal Australian Navy, who served as an Ordinary Seaman aboard H.M.A.S. Sydney in the action against S.M.S. Emden, 9 November 1914

1914-15 Star (O.N.2263 Ord. Sea.); British War and Victory Medals (A.B., R.A.N.); War and Australia Service Medals (2263 R. F. Grimley); Royal Australian Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 2nd issue, fixed suspension, with Second Award bar (2263 Leading Seaman, R.A.N.); H.M.A.S. Sydney - S.M.S. Emden Medal, 9 November 1914, silver Mexican Dollar dated 1895 , mounted by W. Kerr, Sydney, unnamed; Western Australia, Sydney - Emden Commemorative Medal, reverse inscribed (part engraved) ‘Presented by the People of Western Australia to R. F. Grimley, Boy 1 Class’, mounted for display, edge bruising, first three worn; others very fine (8) £1800-2200

Footnote

Reginald Francis Grimley was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 24 August 1897. He entered the Royal Australian Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on Tingira on 24 October 1912. On 15 October 1913 he was posted to the cruiser Sydney with the rank of Boy 1st Class and was advanced to Ordinary Seaman 2nd Class on 24 August 1914. In that capacity he was serving on the Sydney when she engaged and overcame the German light cruiser Emden on 9 November 1914. Remaining on the Sydney, he was advanced to Ordinary Seaman in August 1915 and Able Seaman in September 1916, finally leaving the vessel in September 1917. He spent the last year of the war as an A.B. on the Encounter, January 1918-June 1919. Grimley was advanced to Acting Leading Seaman when on the Adelaide in July 1927 and was confirmed at that rating in July 1928 when on the Anzac. In December 1930 he was awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal when on the Albatross. He transferred to the Auxiliary Services as a Boatman in August 1939 and was awarded the Second Award bar to his L.S. & G.C. Medal in 1946. Latterly employed with the recruiting service, he was pensioned in 1952 and died on 23 June 1955.

The famous action took place on 9 November 1914 when the 2nd Class Cruiser H.M.A.S. Sydney encountered the German Light Cruiser S.M.S. Emden off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. In a short but spectacular career in the Indian Ocean the Emden (Captain Karl von Müller) had bombarded Madras and captured or sunk some 23 allied vessels including a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. In action with the Sydney, the slower and outgunned Emden was eventually beached in a wrecked condition on North Keeling Island.

Sold with copied service records; confirmation of service on the Sydney on 9 November 1914 (rank shown as Boy 1st Class); two copied photographs of the recipient; other associated photographs; accounts of the Sydney-Emden action and sundry associated pictures.

Use your scrollwheel or the zoom buttons to zoom in/out. Click and drag to view other parts of the image when zoomed.

Approximately 100 medals Military General Service Medals were awarded to Indians, mainly warriors but including 10 chiefs, in 1848, this was for services at Fort Detroit Chrystlers Farm and Chateauguay. Given that these had to have survived for 35 years after the event the likelyhood is that there wers several hundred indians serving with the British forces in the 1812 war.

Paul

Case for Alexandhttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_10_2013/post-3085-0-21224000-1381845787.jpger I type taken from Car.

Paul

Thank you so much for showing very nice.

Paul

Have you checked with the National Archives to see if he had any Great War service if that is the case and he was out of the war by 1915 then he could be your man, otherwise I'm afraid the trail goes cold.

Paul

QSAs to the Oxford Light Infantry are quite infrequent on the market, a KSA sold for £65 in 2008. I would have thought that the unit is worth more than the medal so I would suspect a figure in the area of £100-120 would be in order (with the KSA I would reckon double). normal 2 clasp state medals would be about £70.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Do you have his medals?

Paul

If you see my example (previous page) this could well be it, also another example is known in a similar case (ie originally described it as 21-27 but could be equally likely to be 34-41 as there is no obvious difference between the two issues).

Sorry for the confusion.

All the best,

Paul

Nice items and difficult to get hold of.

Paul

More difficult than you think. In the 19th century many British settled in South America and had families there, the children would of then return to England to be educated and many took part in the Britsh wars of the late 19th century and Early 20th century. Nany then returned to South America, often to take over their father's business and would be occaisionally decorated by that country, I know of instances when some returned because they couldn't get on with Britain and later joined the forces of the home of their birth therefore they did not need permission to wear documents and they wouldn't have been gazetted in the UK.

Paul

Brett I am glad you have not cleaned the medal it looks absolutely stunning. I suspect however that it was a remainder or specimen, I find it hard to believe that it was an awarded piece given the perfect condition. Has any one seen an example of this sized medal that has definitely been worn.

Paul

Ionionescu I believe this query should be placed in the Romanian rather than the Serbian section. I suspect you will get a satisfactory answer there.

Paul

Bulgarian and Portuguese diamond insignia turns up from time to time and don't make massive amounts.

Paul

My apologies Lambert I assumed if it was the victory medal the final date would be MCMXIX as 1919 was the effective date of the end of WWI with the signing of the Versailles Treaty.

Paul

From 2008

'The week concluded with Sotheby’s sale of works of art on June 12. The star lot was a diamond-set Badge of the Order of St. Andrew, which set an auction record for a piece from a military order when it sold to a Russian collector for £2,729,250 (est. £400–600,000). The badge was commissioned by the Tsar around 1800.' So I would reckon that Nicks valuation for the set was far from bullish.

Paul

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_10_2013/post-3085-0-60140700-1381417538.jpgLambert,

It is for the Italian War Medal, not the Victory Medal but still extremely nice

Interesting I suspect this is late colonial period.

Paul

I suspect he was educated privately

Jakob,

As the company I work for frequently deals with high-end Imperial Russian orders, could you send me better images. If you PM me I will give you my E-mail address and I can put on my stolen file. Alas I suspect it was stolen to order for a very wealthy collector and may never see the light of day again but you never know.

Paul

The way round shipping to US only for me is to use a friend's address in the US, pay him to send it to me and when I meet him once a year ply him liberally with Jack Daniels.

Paul

It's a Polish Air Defence League badge rather than a Pilot's badge.

Paul

Kerry,

It is likely that his service records are available at the National Archives. avaiable on line at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for a few pounds you should be able to download his service details, and if by some chance they are not available it will cost you nothing.

All the best,

Paul

The Tadley treacle mines are well known to any one in the Hampshire/Berkshire area and by connoisseurs the world over for the quality, darkness and thickness of the treacle, prices are becoming higher and higher as rumours of the seams becoming exhausted in the next 30-50 years. It is rumoured that a wealthy Japanese business man paid over £10,000 for a tin of the first production in 1894. Even a a tin from the new production retails at Fortunum and Masons for £110. Nick, I am surprised Russian oligarchs haven't been trying to buy the mines.

The Italian spaghetti fields are especially known for their harvest festivities which usually tale place at the beginning of April, when the spaghetti which grow profusely in large fields throughout central Italy is picked. An orgy of drunkenness to the local god of fertility takes place ensuring a bumper harvest for the following year.

But I am sure you all knew this already.

PAul

Ampersand usage varies from language to language. In English and French text, the ampersand may be substituted for the words and and et, and both versions may be used in the same text. [NOTE] The German rule is to use the ampersand within formal or corporate titles made up of two separate names. http://www.adobe.com/type/topics/theampersand.html

With more research I now see Amper is as factually accurate as The Tadley Treacle Mines or the Italain Spaghetti fields.

Paul

Sounds like there was a bit of profiteering going on in the mint, presumably the profit on the lighter weight silver and gold pieces went into the pockets of the mint officials. We had the same problem in England in the reign of Henry I, but he cured the problem at the assizes of Winchester in 1124 by emasculating all those moneyers who were producing under weight coinage.

Paul