James Hoard

I have come across the attached Persian medal from the Qajar period, mid to early nineteenth century. The obverse has the familiar 'Lion and Sun' motif, but the inscripion on the reverse is somewhat different from the usual. Can anyone help to decipher the text? Cheers, James

The Tatas, like many of the great Bombay Parsi families, originate in Navsari, a town in Souh Gujarat that used to be in Gaekwar territory. However, the town had been a Parsi town for centuries, ever since the Zorastrians migrated to Gujarat from Persia. The architecture and planning features are typical to the community. Some of the oldest Zorastrian texts are to be found here. The Jejeebhoys, Naoraji and Gandhi (Feroze, Indira's husband) families all originate from the same town.

Sir Dorabji Jamsetji Tata was knighted (knight bachelor) in 1910 and his brother Sir Ratanji in 1916. The widow of the latter, Naja, Lady Tata, was also made a CBE in 1919 for her charity and war services and survived him for many years, well into the late 1950s. Sir Dorabji's wife, Mehrabai, Lady Tata, was also made a CBE but predeceased her husband. Both are buried at Brookwood Cemetary and having no chldren, left their fortunes to charitable causes and institutions. There is a family tree at http://www.tatacentralarchives.com/Heritage/FamilyTree.Pdf Cheers, James

Right you are indeed. Thanks for noticing. Cheers, James

Here's an old picture of him wearing the decoration shortly after receiving it: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancest...x/crprtonga.jpg

Mike, It isn't actually a recent award. He was made a Chevalier at the time he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the late 1980's or 1990's. He has only begun to wear it regularly recently. His father, the late King was a little peeved at the whole thing. First, because the class of the award was so low and second, because protocol dicated tha he should have received an order before his son. Eventually the father's vanity was soothed when he received the Grand Croix of the new Order of Tahiti Nui from French Polynesia, soon after it was established, in 1997. Cheers, James

Josef, Some further information on a possible ID for this decoration. According to Mr Buyers, before the state Order of the Arts and Sciences was established, the elite educational institutions in Tehran awarded their own medals. Amongst these were the prestigious Dar al-Funan College, the Madrasa-ye Naseri, the Madrasa-ye Nizam-i-Dawlati and the Military Academy. These medals were awarded to staff and students, thus essentially scholastic in nature. Since the Military Academy and the Dar ul-Funan College employed a number of distinguished foreign professors, the awards are occasionally found in the west. The state Order of Arts and Sciences (Nishan-i-Ilmi) replaced these awards and was extended as a general nation-wide award for recognising the advancement of learning and dissemination of knowledge by scientists, writers, educators, artists, students, researchers, etc. The award you mention may be the first class medal from the Military Academy, before the Order of Arts and Sciences was established. James

Ah, now that IS a very good idea. I am against UN medals myself. I would much prefer a simple national medal for peacekeeping or UN operations with bars for particular deployments. There are too many individual UN medals. We know have a NATO medal, no doubt others from ye more organizations will follow and add to the excessive number of medals. But on the point of civilians and soldiers. They do seem to care very much about what civvies think, at least nowadays. There are consant stories in the press here in the UK, complaints about being treated badly by the public, their services not recognised properly by the communities they live in, etc. Cheers, James

Hi Barry, The dhow, palm tree and wavy lines representing the sea would suggest a Qatari connection. They are all elements in the Qatar state crest. However, they are not arranged in the same way and do not include camels or an oil well. Perhaps it has something to do with a presentation or commemorative medallion from a state oil company or related enterprise? Cheers, James

James, I certainly agree with you about the regretable increase in the amount of "hardware" on uniforms. Partly due to the Aussies, rather than the Americans. Ever since their new-found republicanism and the ditching of "Imperial" awards, the Aussies have gone in for what can only be described as an orgy of medals. Not content with their own medals, the senior brass also trapse off to Singapore and Indonesia to fill their chests with gaudy sashes and other foreign awards. Fellow Commonwealth soldiers often argue that they are "deprived" compared with their Australian counterparts. Many is the time that they have raised the argument that the Queen in Australia does so and so, therefore we in the UK must have the same. Once the soldiery raise the issue, then some busybody in parliament takes it up and before you know it, a campaign has started. However, as regards the wound stripe versus medal, the question remains as to how a soldier recognised by the award of a stripe on his uniform will be able to take that into civilian life? How are civilians going to be able to recognise that award? At least a medal will be easily understood and he could wear it at events when medals are worn. If he joins the police, fire service, coast guard or other uniformed civilian service he could wear it along with his other ribbons. He will not be able to do either if he were given a stripe on his service uniform. I cannot really see a former soldier turned civilian, turning up in a tux with miniatures on his chest and stripes on his arm. Cheers, James

Apart from the item you mention there appear to be one or two other items that look somewhat doubtful. A few items down, there is an item labelled "Ghajar Order of Moghadas" in very modern looking enamels. The order came in diamonds and precious stones. Indeed, the only way to distinguished it from the Aghdas and Quds was by the numbers of these precious stones. There never was an enamelled version. Another photograph of an item even further down appears to be identical to a photograph of an item in the Royal Collection at Windsor. Either H.M. is hard up for funds, and has sold both photograph and decoration to the dealer, or there is something a little odd. James

Chris, The trouble with wound stripes is that they can only apply to service dress and cannot be taken into civilian life, the police, coast guard, fire brigade, ambulance service, corps of commissionaires, etc. James

Sigh, this sort of thing irks me too. Our newspaperpersons in the UK do much the same. What is even more annoying is seeing our own military often following suit. In Afghanistan and Iraq, they have even taken to wearing US rank insginia. A sort of shoulder device afixed vertically on the chest with American stars and sundry whiz-bangs. I hope when the UK announces our own "wound medal" they take a lead from the Canadians and not try to immitate the US. James

Isn't it more like two and a half years? Cheers, James

Sorry for my ignorance, but are these lists of awards according to the relative precedence of the awards? Did they rank as follows: 1. Pedro I 2. St James of the Sword 3 Christ 4. Rose 5. (Southern) Cross 5. St Benedict of Aviz What about the Order of the Tower and Sword, was that not also awarded in Brazil by the emperors? Cheers, James

Although some have gone to town dismissing the status of this uniform, one shouldn't be all that quick to judge. There are all sorts of civic officials, town criers, city livery company people, and so on who may wear 18th century uniforms of this kind. They will be be of modern manufacture, but all sorts of bits and pieces will be reused and they will have a genuine history. If, for example, the town in question has maritime or naval connections then naval themes may be found on their garb, buttons, etc.

Sadly, another erroneous display and label. Milroy was Lieutenant-General Williams Alexander Milroy, DSO, CM, CStJ, CD**, thus not a "MajGen". His "Order of Canada" was a Membership and should be displayed immediately after his DSO, not before. Cheers, James

Darrell, A wonderful display of photographs of orders, decorations, medals and equipment. Thanks for taking the trouble to post them all here. Very well done. Alas, virtually every single decoration in the display for Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal is incorrectly described in the museum display. Stars labelled as badges, etc. Quite amazingly the breast star of his Order of St John of Jerusalem is labelled as a "habit". It only takes a few seconds to look up a dictionary to find out what the word habit means. Even Lord Strathcona's titles are wrong. I am sure the director of the museum would be the first to stand on his dignity, if he were do be described as "Master Jack Smith, Curator Dr John Smith, Esq" or given some such other rediculous label. There cannot be that many Canadians from Calgary who became peers, so one would expect a modicum of research into getting things right. Sorry to get on my soapbox, but these sorts of mistakes really ge me going. Cheers, James

Hugh, There is no sash for this class. The badge is worn from a neck ribbon (men) or whoulder bow (ladies). Cheers, James

Hi Hugh, I happened to search the web for something completely different when I came across this website on the Chief Ministers of Trengganu at http://hr.terengganu.gov.my/sejarahmb.html Many of them had received the SPMT going back to the 1970's and 1960's. From the sash colours it would appear the ribbon colour scheme for the DPMT that I posted held at least from the 1960's to 2005. So there remains something of a mystery over your riband and the method of wear for the DPMT badge. Cheers, James

She wears the star of the Order of Sultan Mizan in the first big picture on the left (the second star in the SE position).

The titles and translations of the names of the orders there are a little strange. I am not sure where all that magnificense comes from. Too many to correct here, but the title of this particlar order is: Darjah Kebesaran Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Terengganu Yang Amat Terpilih or The Most Select Order of Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Trengganu. Cheers, James

I am not sure if it is the same but it looks identical to a badge worn from a collar by King Hussein. The gold collar has large links that look very much like the links in an ordinary industrial chain. These are separated by crowns alternating with devices which are all different and include a) circular disk with an enamelled eagle in white, b) a red enamelled circular disk with what looks like an exploding artillery shell, c) a red enamelled circular disk with what looks like a naval badge with white enamelled anchor, d) a laurel wreath, e) another laurel wreath but different from d, f) a red enamelled circular disk with a device resembling a cannon ball, g) a red enamelled circular disk with a sort of staff or baton, & etc. In the same picture the King wears on his right breast an octagonal gold and enamelled badge. This has a similar crossed swords and eagle device surrounded with a wreath, as in the badge hung from the collar described above and worn by the Queen in the picture posted above. I have a large scanned colour picture but it is far too big to post. Cheers, James

Wonderful photograph Iraqi Miliaria, I am particularly interested in the order that the Queen is wearing as a broach on the sash at her right shoulder. Can you perhaps be so very kind as to post a close-up of this decoration? It looks very much like the collar badge of one of the Jordanian orders. Cheers, James

He could be wearing the arm band for Prince Fatafehi Tu'i Pelehake, killed in a tragic road accident with his wife in California, 5th July 2006. While the King does continue to wear the order, he tends to wear it together with some of the others. King George Tupou V wearing the most senior order, the Order of Pouono breast star, collar (chain) and sash.