Michael Johnson

Here's a cleaned-up version of that reverse:

Except for bad boys the date will be 15 years after commencement of adult service. Boy service didn't count for the medal.

Got this postcard as a freebie from TomY. Since German uniforms are not my area of expertise, I would appreciate some expert identification. Something about the uniform makes me think it's post 1918 and pre 1939.

I think I would rather have 10,000 British-issue Victory Medals, each named to an individual. Especially ones to the Royal Navy, where for a few dollars more I can download their service records from National Archives. See how many shipmates I can put together.

It's also from an old Army song, which goes along the lines of: If you want to find the Colonel I know where he is I know where he is He's lying in the deep dugout. and goes down the ranks until "the old battalion" is "hanging on the cruel barbed wire". I first heard it from my childhood friend's father, a Second War veteran.

I think it's Rude! That's a French art joke (the sculptor's name was Rude). That detail also appears on one version of the French WWI memorial scroll. I think I still prefer my variant DN (which also has the Foreign Legion bar: Type C in the picture

As far as I know my grandfather did not bother to apply for any of his medals French or British (as an Interpreter attached to the B.E.F. he would have been entitled to a British War Medal). His brother-in-law only left a Legion d'Honneur, although we have photographs of him with the Croix de Guerre.

The grenade with separate crown looks like Royal Irish Fusiliers.

R.D. Palsokar's. I haven't seen the latest history by Lt-Gen. Prasad - any good?

A very interesting medal. If you could ever find one with a solid attribution to the U.S.S. Reuben James or U.S.S. Kearney, you'd have a real find! http://www.geocities.com/nashville/3448/reuben.html

There's a nice sketch in the Dogra Regiment history of a Sepoy wearing his badge. As I recall it is centred on the pleat of his left breast pocket. (I also seem to recall it is captioned as being a Sepoy c. 1920!)

This looks like your man: http://data2.archives.ca/cef/gpc005/355243a.gif http://data2.archives.ca/cef/gpc005/355243b.gif From the collection of badges it looks like his progression was 219th to 85th in France, possible Second War service with the Halifax Rifles (but of a certainty Canada only).

The Fleet AIr Arm Museum holds some records. See http://www.fleetairarm.com/index2.htm

I read this as two clasps, and suspect that 179/109 is the supplementary roll, as the main QSA rolls are WO/100. The South Africa clasps do not appear on the WO/100 roll

Probably he needs a "South Africa 1902" clasp as well. The Medal roll should give the exact entitlement, but be careful, as often there was a supplemental roll for the date clasps and late entitlements. I read this as his being entitled to Transvaal and S.A. 1902. Since the date clasps were often issued separately it might not have been on his medal.

I think it is the reference to the IGS 1908 medal roll for the Royal Berkshires, and gives the cl[asp] earned - Waz[iristan] 1921-24.

A renamed medal will normally show some signs, as a reasonable amount of metal has to be filed off to obliterate the original naming. This means that the bottom of the medal will not be as round as the rest of the disk. Also look at the botom edge from the side. Often the edge will look more like ) than |.

Yes, it's amazing the information in those National Archives statement of services. I've got the following: 1914-15 Star, BWM - HMS Lion at Jutland 1914-15 trio - HMS Bellerophon at Jutland. Died 1919 from TB 1914-15 Star, Victory - HMS King George V at Jutland. Died in naval hospital 1924 from Cancer. Interestingly, the two are mounted on a bar of some age, with no space large enough for the BWM. Victory Medal - HMS Warspite at Jutland Victory Medal - HMS Princess Royal at Jutland

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/jeane_d'arc.htm

I would think he might have a claim to the Netherlands War Medal. Check with the Dutch embassy. Here are the applicable medals: http://users.skynet.be/hendrik/eng/39NL.html

Now that is a Freudian slip...

"That Day" is certainly based on the 66th. This site: http://www.britishbattles.com/second-afgha.../ahmed-khel.htm thinks that the regiment may have been the 59th, who were roughly handled at Ahmed Khel. Kipling certainly knew veterans of the Second Afghan War, including members of the Northumberland Fusiliers. His "Tyneside Tailtwisters" are undoubtedly the Northumberland Fusiliers.

We shouldn't forget Kipling's short story "The Drums of the Fore and Aft" about two drummer boys who wangle their way into active service in the Second Afghan War, and end up being killed as they try to rally their regiment, which has cracked and run. Possibly modelled on the battle of Maiwand. http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/au...rumforeaft.html

Sudan Medals show in Arabic the unit number and the regimental number. No naming as such (at least from the one I owned). My memory is bad, but I think the Egypt Medal is also in Arabic, but also has the name - but I could be wrong. I never owned one, just British and Indian Armies.

Who were members of the Vanilla Fauj?