peter monahan

"Wow what a story Peter... thamks for sharing. " He is in the book I self-published this year on the 70 men whose names appear on our local WWI memorials. After publication his full record became available. He lasted 4 weeks the first time he enlisted, based on pay records, thrown out on 'medical' grounds - height, I'd guess. Re-joined the same unit with a new number and lasted 5 weeks. The third time he travelled 200 miles to join a different unit. His first enlistment lists a non-exitant home address in Scotland, though he wasfrom Yorkshire, and his 'Next of Kin' was first a landlady then a 'friend', though his mother was alive in England. Determined little cuss!

Nice!

It was not uncommon for boys to be allowed to enlist when the evidence seems clear that they were underage but many were held in Canada or the UK until they were at least 18. At least in the Cdn forces, under-18s in the trecnches - 19 was the official age' do not appear to ave been that common. I have records for a Simcoe County boy who enlisted three times before it 'took' and even then his papers say 'Not to proceed overseas [ie: France] until [indecipherable]' and 'Forestry Corps', which was where many under and over age volunteers ended up. In fact, one of his attestaion papers actually has '18' crossed out and '17 years, 9 months' written in, though that was also wrong. This lad stayed in England until his 'official' 18th birthday, based on his 3rd date of birth, was wounded on Nov. 9th and Died of Wounds Nov. 11, 1918.

Tony I'm retired, with nothing but time on my hands, so reading and responding fills the day and if it proves useful is doubly good! Peter

I didn't want to rain on Tony's parade, but I did wonder if this was a repro. Not my area of expertise, however it is certainly one obvious explanation for the exquisite condition in something at least 117 years old.

Nineteenth century, cavalry sabre, possibly German or French would be my guess. Check on this site: http://swordsdb.com/SwordsDB_Cavalry_Sabers.php

Or a commemorative piece made for an old comrades group but, either way, unissued. Very nice!

Probably a membership pin, to be worn in 'civvies' for the 'Order of the Moorish Star', a women's branch of the Masonic movement. http://www.moorishriteonline.net/orderofmoorishstar.htm

This is speculative, but I think that the references to the 'BW' are to another roll - not sure why there would be two - and that the extra information you seek is on that roll, the 'original', so to speak. Perhaps one of our British members with more experience with those records can confirm or refute this?

That is indeed in mint condition. Very nice, Tony!

The order is the Sebian Order of the White eagle, I think. One of the lower classes perhaps - 3rd or 4th. Great news and all too rare. I too hope the b***er responsible for the theft is taken to law. This happens with elderly people and unscrupulous dealers from time to time and far to often no charges are laid or pressed.

Try Ed Haynes site: 'S.A. Gongs, I think it's called. He is the man for South asian medals and if anyone knows the answer to your question it will be he!

Thank you very much for reviving this thread! I have actually been in both Maidugari, where Maigumeri was from, and kaduna, where he retired. Don't know about the Iron Cross, but to comment on another bit of the thread - posts 9-13. He was almost certailny 'BSM' of the 3rd Battalion in 1928 because there would have been one RSM - of the whole regiment - whicj latter rank he achieved at a later date

It is my undersatanding that British and the occasional American officer attended Samur as students. How they were chosen I have no idea.

They do indeed! I too would love to see photos, Bifter.

"There are many rumours..." My favourite weasel words: 'It is alleged that... ' and 'There is a theory that...' both of which mean, either a world expert has done research and thinks that... or a guy in a pub says that... That, BTW, is a reference to BigJar's quote from Wiki, not to Etoile Blanche's cliam that there are 45 tons of double eagles down there. Here, BTW, is Wiki's synopsis of the actual dives on the Republic "The 1987 salvage effort was successful in targeting and excavating their target area, but failed to locate the gold, however. The crew excavated the target area but ended up in the ship’s wine locker, finding hundreds of pre-1900 bottles of wine and champagne.[11] Once they realized they were in the wine locker rather than the specie room, Capt. Bayerle flew to London and appeared on ITV and BBC radio, offering a £25,000 reward for the construction plans of the Republic.[12] No one came forth with the plans to the ship, however, and the salvage was terminated for lack of funds. Despite many years of research and effort, the plans to the ship still have never been found."

So, Medal of the National Guard, for the 1st District. Would the three classes have been awarded for length of service, if the National Guard were a reserve/militia type organization?

Having just done a small book on men from my area who died in the Great War, I applaud your efforts and interest! I'm in Alliston and a former Torontonian, so I even know where your museum is! I'm sorry to hear Dave's prognosis.

I'd suggest you contact/visit a good optics shop - some place which sells telescopes, bicoulars and so on. They can likely measure the exact dimensions - diameter and thread pitch - of what you need and provide you with either the eyepieces or a place to order them. However, I agree with Bayern that it may be tricky, as parts for old optics are not that common.

'B.C,' - 'before children' - I had a small medal collection, composed almost entirely of IGS medals to the Indian cavalry. I still regret having disposed of them. At the time they were dirt cheap, as they were deemed 'unresearchable' by most dealers and collectors, and I was lucky enough to pick up some very nice bars to units with interesting service. Never got as far as going for one example of each bar, though that would be a long-time labour of love. Thank you for sharing!

It is my vague recollection that at some point in the last several decades the British authorities quietly sold off unnamed speciemns of a number of medals, as surplus to requirements. Whether that would have included DCMs I couldn't say and, as indicated elsewhere - see the 'Cafard' post - my memory is superb but very short! Another possible explanation?

Derek You're not giving us much to go on! I'd guess, and it's definitely a guess, that it's NOT British but probably cavalry with a hilt like that and, I think, a curved blade. A shot of the whole sword and, more importantly, any stamps - letters, numbers, symbols - on the blade or hilt would help a lot in identifying it. A wooden hilt is unusual, I think, but it may have been covered in leather originally too, so that may not help. Sorry I can't say more. perhaps one of our blade experts can chip in here? Peter

I had difficulty finding anything other than the Wikipedia article you mention, from which the relevant phrase is: "used to manufacture a limited number of the Southern Africa Medal, including the specimen medal depicted." [emphasis added] I would interpret that as meaning that the alloy used for the first batch of medals 'including the specimen medal depicted' contained copper from the Russian tank(s) but that subsequent batches did not. How one would tell whether or not a given medal was par tof that lot I don't know, bar the obvious: most of the first ones issued would have been that lot. Even then, if that was a one-off proces, as the article suggests, then it may well be that the medals from that batch were given to officers or help back for 'special awards'. An intriguing puzzle!

'Second to none.' But we're not bitter about it. Oh, no!