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    peter monahan

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    Everything posted by peter monahan

    1. Kgard Fascinating! Thank you very much. I didn't know that the young birds were resurrected by the blood, but of course, as mentioned, that ties it even closer to Christ: "I am the Resurrection... ". I also din't know that Freemasonry had the close tie to the message of the Gospels, the message of resurrection, which you suggest. So thank you twice! Peter
    2. " Here is a photo of a kettle drummer of the Leib Garde Hussars. The drummer is Elo Sambo who was originally from Kamerun. " Great photo! The British Army was very big on "Turkish" instruments and musicians in the first half of the nineteenth century. One band (1810ish) had three black members two "West Indian" and one "East Indian". They often wore outlandish turbans and so on. Interesting to see that this German unit took up/kept up the practice! Peter Monahan
    3. Wm Lovely jewels. I must look more closely the next time I see Masonic regalia in an antique shop! Might one ask why the pelican symbol is used? I know very little of Masonic lore - we "Papists" are discouraged by our Church from joining - but the "pelican in her piety" is a very Christian (maybe even Catholic?) image. It appears in many of the churches I've been in over the years: the female pierces her own breast and uses the blood to nourish her young - a clear, if rather gory analogy to the body and blood. Medieval in origin, I'm sure. Does it have a special significance for Masons? Peter
    4. Oh, we care! Just that some of us are too busy drooling over the groups to actually type any comments! Wonderful stuff, especially the States Forces groups. And I still remember how excited Michael johnson and I were the first time we came across a named WWII medal. To a Dogra who served in Malaysia in '45-46, i think. (Michael? help?) I'm still working on the technical issue of posting photos and still hoping to share some of the IA badges. I'll let you know! Peter Monahan
    5. Colonel Daud Khan, Sardar Bahadur, Alwar Imperial Service Infantry
    6. Byf I'm with Bob! I would have expected another scarf OVER the helmet, gauntlets over wool mitts on the hands and at least two cigarettes burning for warmth! Lovely uniform, though. Peter
    7. Many many years ago, "when I was jist a recruity" there were a pair of them which did the tourist thing around Ottawa, our (Canada's) national capital. Even as a foolish teenager i couldn't see braving the Ottawa River in them, as the river regularly capsized boats and canoes and not infrequently drowned people. They've now been replaced by purpose built craft - of very similar appearance, form following function I suppose. One of the latter did drown some tourists last year, though it appears it only swamped because some drongo had left out a drain plug! On a related note, has anyone "over there" (Europe side) seen the Volkswagen "Thing" from the 1980's? It is a knockoff of the Kubelwagen, identical to my untrained eye except that the spare tire is not on the hood. there was one around here for years done in Afrika Korps camo and I used to see one in Toronto done up in an Eastern Front paint scheme. Something else to warm the hearts of veterans! On that cheery note, Happy Christmas!
    8. Chris I'm with you on the "checking with wife" - mine is very understanding of my expensive tastes but... budget only has so much flex in it. Your Turkish delights are very festive, for the "holiday collection", but do Scutari and cairo really count as "local" for you? All the best of the season Peter
    9. Lovely pieces, Chris! Often wished I could afford to collect enamelled orders and such just for the look. I met a collector who did just that: bought them by "look" and hung them in a small cabinet on his livingroom wall, no interest in the recipients or even their history. what a waste! The last time I saw one of these Turkish thingies, years ago, was in a really marvellous group of "all foreign" awards to a British subject. The man had been the senior stationmaster at one of the London railway terminals, obviously the one where official delegations to Queen Victoria arrived, for 25 years. He had a minor British award for his faithfiul service (MBE?)and about 6 or 7 European orders, all junior grades, presumably handed to him by some functionary in each of a series of official parties as they exited their official trains. Oddly, the only one I remember is the Turkish one - perhaps because I had to go look it up at the time. Really interesting group, representing the kind of "commerce" between nations one only reads about any more.
    10. Ed I won't even talk about the @#** camera. Suffice it to say that technology ain't all it's cracked up to be. I will need to donwload some better editing software and get a tutorial on postring to this site before I put any images up. I have visited your site - very interesting - goes on my favourites list! Clearly someone stays on top of who's who in the Indian forces - beautiful ribbon groups! I have a few State Forces badges, besides the ones I've already mentioned. The lcomplete list: 2nd Hyderabad Cav; 3 Hyderabad Inf, Jaipur Kachawa Horse; Amb SF; 1st Bahwalpur Inf; Bahawalpur Mt Rifles ; Cooch behar SF; Idar SF Sir Partab Inf; Kairpur SF; Kalat SF; Ist Rampur Raza Inf; the "Rewa Vankat Bttn" and two I never identified. Plusa Firmin & Sons london blazer button marked "Mysore Lancers"! Some are crude sand-castings but many are nicely detailed and , I think, most are real. The galloping horse badeg I mentioned earlier is actually marked "XXVI CAVALRY" (Indian Armoured Corps). Also have 23rd Cav, 24th Cav, 45th & 48th and a really crude 70th Armoured Missile Reg't, all IA, with 4th and 25th Cavalry Pakistani Armoured Corps. Several of these latter have the loops cast integrally with the badges, as do a couple of the SF badges - protruding lugs with holes bodged through them. I wonder if these may be market copies made for collectors. Any thoughts on that?
    11. Hinrik Lawson had never bothered to apply for his medals - not given automatically to civilian employeees - but after we'd talked it over he did. he got a 1939 Star, Atlantic Star and War Medal and canadian Volunteer Service Medal, which I had named on the reverse/edges and mounted with some of his cap badges. His widow has those in their bedroom and also his cap and a son has his old flying jacket. No log books. I may be wrong about only twice into Iceland - i'd thought he saids they went Greenland - Scotland non-stop if they made Iceland. I do recall he said they had to make two turns going up a narrow fjord to get into the Bluie feild, on minimal fuel. Yes, he did do some Azores trips near the end but quit in Feb '45 after many of the same model of planes he was delivering blew up enroute due to leaky longrange gas tanks in the fuselages! Hinrik
    12. Hinrik Thanks (again) for the info. My late father in law was a radio operator on the trans-Atlantic Ferry Command flights - Labrador to Bluie (sp?) in Greenland to Scotland, but I know he put down in Iceland at least twice. I also beleiev that it was off Iceland where the Queen Mary had her foredeck "peeled back like a tin can lid" by a freak wave as she served as a troop transport late in WWII. Do the Americans still have their base there? I saw in our local newspaper last summer that Icelanders now fly to St John's, Newfoundland to shop! Seems like a long way to come for cheap shoes, but I know distance is a relative thing when one lives "north of 50".
    13. The British Nigerian penny - which had a hole in the center for carrying on a string by pocketless people - has a "Star of David" on the obverse. I have one on my Key ring and see it every day. My personal theory - in this case anyway - is that it's just a nice symetrical design to put on a circular coin. BTW, we changed the name of Swastika, Ontario sometime in the '40's but we still have a Swastika Lake and my 6 volumes from 1926 edition of Rudyard Kipling's short stories (MacMillan Canada) has an elephant's head and swastika on each cover.
    14. Shako I'm glad that Ulsterman said "congolese" for the bottom middle one. I was going to stick my neck WAY out and, on nothing but gut instinct, say "Try Belgium". So Congo makes sense. I wonder if the bottom right might be Belgian? (or possibly Dutch?) based on the general style, nothing more, and a very very hazy memory of something similar years ago. Aritllery artificer?? My tuppence worth -and cheap at half the price :7) Peter Monahan
    15. Ed Actually, I was being perhaps too difident last post - I am fairly certauin my identifications are ok, but am never to old to learn! Especially now that the Net makes once remote locales easier to check with. Michael Johnson and I founded the IMCS, back "in the day" as the kids say. I'm glad to hear that Ashok Nath has finally gotten a book together - been hoping for one for years. I have several SF badges - 2 Hyderabad Lancers, a Jaipur Rissala badge and several others (at work now - forget). Also some wild and wonderful post-'47 units, including a huge rhinocerous badge to (I think) the Assam reg't and an IA missile battery with a running horse which looks for all the world like the Ford Mustang logo from the '60's.
    16. Would love to see anything to do with Skinners horse ! Chris et al Apparently I didn't read the rules carefully enough! My hotos are all bigger than the size allowed new members, so they'll have to wait until I've won my spurs and been "regularized". Sorry if I got your hopes up. There is are two one Skiner's Horse badge in the lot. Th first I have labelled as "Br officer's collar dog, 1907-1922" based on the style, etc. It is a thin, cast, bi-metal and consists of crossed lances in highly polished/plated white metal, King's crown between the heads and a gold metal rose superimposed on the crossing of the lances. The scroll across the bottom of the lances reads "Himmat I Marden Madad I Khuda" The whole is about 1.2" tall by 1" wide. 2 copper lugs soldered on vertically on the back. The detail on the lance pennons and crown is excellent, on the scroll less so - only half the letters can actually be made out. One lance tip is missing it's ferrule bu the whole is unscrathced, shiny and very attractive. The second is labelled "O.R.s cap badge" (I say this as i did the research 15-20 years ago on both and haven't revisited the sources but my reasoning at the time was based on some pretty careful examination of available texts - I have Chris Rothero's "Skinner's Horse". It is white metal, 1.25" high x 1" wide with 4 copper attachment lugs (at the lance tips and scroll ends). A "1" at the junction of the lances, no crown and the title "SKINNER'S HORSE" on the scroll. Both arrived with a single small rubber pad pushed over one lug, presumably to hold them onto a backing board, and were the only two in the lot with such so I'd guess they came from a single source originally. There are some modern Indian and Pakistani badegs in the lot and the lovely thing - to me - is that many of the "new" ones are very like the old. For example, the 2nd Lancers (1922-1947) shows two sets of crossed lances behind a a garter with "HONI SOIT QUI MALYPENSE (sic)". There is a lion in the center of the scroll and a King's crown on top - overlapping the garter btw "Soit" and "QUI". The IA version has the same 4 lances, the same lion and, in place of the crown the Lions of Ashoka. The scroll now reads "SECOND LANCERS (G. H.)". At a glance, the only difference is the size and the fact that the lions are "skinnier and so don't touch the lance heads either side. Clearly, the proud traditions of the Raj have been preseved. (More on this later.)
    17. Mike Try googling "museum supplies" or "library supplies" - conservators and archivists use various sizes of sleeves in "inert" plastics which won't eat your documents a decade from now. Mst of them do mail order as well. Sorry I don't have any actual company names - just took the one course on conservation so far. As a last resort, art supply stores or your local library may have some leads. Peter (New guy) Monahan :7)
    18. Ed The IOM badge on your ID would be a clue, no? I'll try to sort out the technical issues a.s.a.p. !
    19. I have been playing around with a new digital camera - 50th birthday gift from a doting family - and put togehter these shots from a small collection of British Indian, Indian and Pakistani cavalry/armour badges. They've been in a bottom drawer for most of 20 years now and most, I think, are originals, though some of the casting is pretty primitive. Anyway, I attach a few (if I can get it to work) for the interest of any members. Have about 30 more yet to photograph.
    20. John Masters rose to command a Chindit column in Burma in 1944 and went on to write novels, having begun as a Ghurka officer. here is his take on the Yeomanry (presumably the Chesires) in Iraq in '40 "The major general in command was of course a regular, a cavlryman, and his first name was George. Normally this would be a piece of little preactical use to his subordinate officers or men, but Yeomanry were soemthing special. At the general's first inspection before the division left England for war, he has asaked one of the yeomanry colonels whether everything was in order. The colonel replied "Oh, I think so George." The general gently pressed for details - ammunition? Vehicles? Noncom's training? gas masks? The colonle scratched his head and said, "Dash it, I don't know about any of that, george... but we've got forty dozen of champagne, well crated, and the pack of foxhounds is in fine fettle." Goerge took over command of all land forces (in Iraq)... [a brother officer's of masters] had the privilige of sitting in on one of his first conferences and surreiptiously noted down a conversation that ran as follows: The General "well, I think we should send a patrol up the Euphrates for fifty miles or so, to make sure no one is lyiong up in the desert out there." One of his Yeomanry Colonels: "Good idea, George." The General: "From your regiment, I thought, Harry. About a troop with a couple of guns, eh?" The Colonel: Oh, yes George... I think I'll send Charles. (horror on his face) "Charles? Charles? Do you think he'll go? We learned later that though Second Lieutenant Charles was distinctly vexed at being sent on such a piddling mission he did finally agree to go, since George and harry seemed to set so much store in it." ... they were delightful people." And there's more! (From "the Road Past Mandalay", John Masters Peter Monahan (new member) And there's more
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