Ed_Haynes

Another thought to that.... could the remains of battery acid and various other cleaning methods STILL be eating away at medals? i.e if a dealer in Delhi cleaned it with acid 5 years ago, surely it is better to give it a good cleaning to get rid of the remains of any acids?

Makes sense. A good bath in tepid warer with a tiny bit of mild soap and a sort-bristled toothbrush always seems a good idea, acid, grunge, dirt, whatever. No damage will be done, as opposed to polishing, dipping, plating the medals as some collectors do.

(And it is far more likely to have happend in Ambala than Delhi. The boys in Delhi are too smart for that, though sometimes their employees aren't. I have a lovely [?] Sainya Seva Medal that looks bronze due to such soaking -- the idiot ex-employee thought it was silver.)

The "40 Thieves" served during WWI in Hong Kong, France, German East Africa, and India. A second battalion was raised in 1918, which served primarily in India. An estimated 199 were killed/died in the War (CWGC figures, but maybe pretty good as far as Muslims are concerned).

Military Cross = 1 (for East Africa).

IOM = 6 (3 each for France and East Africa).

IDSM = 6 (4 for East Africa and 2 for France).

(Thanks to friends at the SAGongs forum.)

Let me dig out Gaylor and see if there is more.

The East Africa campaign is very poorly served in the sources. Based on some sources, sometimes you'd think only South Africans fought there.

Today, some South Asian medal dealers and many medal "wholesalers" do clean them in battery acid. In The Indian Army, the recommended way in the 19th and early 20th century to clean your medals for parade was a mixture of lemon juice, wood ash, and sand. Chemically-literate friends have tried to explain to me how scary-bad this is.

(By the way, those who see no problem in "cleaning" the medals we host, given that the original recipients would have polished them, might draw a lesson on from this?)

Miniature ribbons?

The online London Gazette should help.

I think Ed has hit the nail on the head. In the closer view from the site, those do seem to be the medals. Strange order of wearing them though??

Fantastic photo. Would be interested in finding out more about this guy.

Mike

Normal order of wearing for an Egyptian (Sudanese) soldier. They would wear medals from their ruler first and those from some foreign queen last.

Yes, indeed. And nice to see him. He is a friend of a friend.

Yes, a lovely photo, but way too small for me to get any sort of medal identification. Here's the best closeup I can do from what was posted.

Maybe: Egypt Star (clasp?), Sudan Medal with 4 (?) clasps, British Egypt medal with 2 (?) clasps, British Sudan Medal?

Nice. These Ottoman campaign medals are mostly quite rare. It is also interesting to note that the cannon/mountains business is the reverse. Most Westerners would probably want it to be the obverse?

Nice, thanks for posting.

I note that he wears the old ribbon of the OP Vijay Star and, like so many, has his OP Parakram medal ribbon reversed. And it is a shame the SC seems to be hiding under his lapel.

Nice one, JC. Very hard to find outside the Subcontinent and hard to find even there. :envy:

Clearly Southeast Asia, Indonesia maybe? And I'd guess it is a tourist item.

Ouch . . . this is tempting . . . hands off my credit card! Need a good DDR tunic . . .

Thanks for the thread!

Since I suspect most of you don't visit 'over there', please glance at

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=34033

A crossover group I'd to see!!

Right, Chris. I have three or four of "his" among the millions. Thanks for your serious response.

From Williamson's The Iron Cross .....

Another interesting case of awards bouncing about? And this one on two fronts?!

Translation

Chain of command.

Translation

And

Recommendation

Translation

Reverse

Record Card

OPW 2 # 463146