peter monahan

Other guesses?

Dunn was the chap who died in a 'hunting accident' in Abbysinnia. Make of that what you will. Lovely work, BTW. My personal favourite VC winner is the SECOND Canadian, William Hall. He worked for Samel Cunard in Halifax, NS, joined the Andrew in Liverpool, went to Crimea as 'Captain of the Foretop', deserted from a manning hulk in the UK then was part of the HMS Shannon landing party which supported the assault on Hindu Rao's House a the Siege of Delhi. He and his captain were both recommended for the VC, captain dies, Hall is actually awarded his on board a ship in Simonstown Harbour, SA. He was BLACK. Yes, Negro, 30 years before the great debate over whether Black troops in the West India Regiment could qualify and 60 years before the Indian Army won one. Which must have caused considerable consternation when in London when they found out. When he retired, after 20 more years working for the Navy as a clerk the UK, he listed his occupation as 'Gentleman Farmer' of King's County, Nova Scotia and his 'hobbies' as 'shooting crows'.

I was going to say 'childrens' gas mask box'. Some actually came in Mickey Mouse boxes, to make them less scary, but those are in the 'hen's teeth' category.

We will remember them.

"and his wife, his beloved, the mistress of the house'. How lovely!

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Nice work, all. Thanks for your efforts.

Fabulous display. Thank you both for sharing it and for preserving it.

Of course you're correct: not a printing plate because it would be reveresed. Brain fart there. I wondered if 'IO' was 'Intelligence Officer' or 'I... Operator' but no real idea either. Interesting puzzle.

Very nice indeed!

Fascinating badge on that second cap! I've never seen such a thing before but I suppose it makes sense, as presumably the GGFG could be supposed to represent or contain men from all the provinces then in Canada, though I notice PEI didn't make the cut. Thanks for sharing.

A very interesting piece. I know very little about printing but I assume this is a plate intended to be inked and then used to print copies of the cartoon, presumably created by a fairly skilled etcher who copied the original cartoon. Not sure about 'I.O.' but probably not 'Infantry Officer'. Can't find it listed in glossries of 'Nam era slang.

The photo, at least to my old eyes, is too blurry to be much help, but perhaps one of our Scots members/experts can tell us which regiment wore a double-tasselled sporran and a side cap rather than a tam. Judging from the general clues, I'd guess one of the Volunteer units, pre-WWI but am quite prepared to be contradicted on that guess! Welcome to the GMIC and good luck with the quest. Peter P.S. Don't know how I've engaged the strike through function nor how to fix it.

British Imperial armies and their affilitates: India, Singapore, Mauritisu and the others, typically used the same weapons as the British and this is not, I'm quite sure, a British piece as such. Some of the colonies, of course, added their own heraldry and symbols but, as suggested, this is far more suggestive of the US and French/German style swords than of British ones, IMO. Perhaps Korea, Vietnam or another Asian former colony? Or perhaops a fantasy piece made up for the tourist/collector trade.

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Sounds as if we're talking a rather small total of authorized issues but, as Alex says, provenance will be key here and an unnamed issue or one with a spurious or incomplete pedigree will bring far less than one verifiably issued to a verteran of the Arctic convoys. I'm old enough to remember when the first Falklands conflict GSMs appeared in toronto, Canada, the two I sawe complete with hand written notes suggesting they'd been bought in a pub in Liverpool the day the QE2 docked there with a load of Royal Marines aboard. I take no position on how likely that was to be true, but I do know tat the Mint quite quickly started stamping '"replacement" on the re-issued medlas, as so many were being 'lost' by serving soldiers. I also seem to recall that a number were lost by one of the Guards battalions on Buck House duty, as the suspenders weren't up to the repeated stamping and clashing produced by such use. So, a question with no simple answer!

I agree: Great War German. For me, the strap with the clip is the diagnostic mark.

Excellent. Yes, my money was on unofficial but I don't know enough about Pakistani practice to be definite on that. A nice looking piece, presumably worn on a wide ribbon.

" the morning star that stands for the battle of 1302 (golden spurs battle) faught and won by the Flemish against the French ...The axe stands for the 600 Walloons (from Franchimont) killed by the French in 1468 at Liége. " And I thought the Irish had long memories! An uncle of mine was reduced one winter to reading the 19th century records of his parish here in Canada and one letter to the pastor from a group of disgruntled parishioners assured him that they knew how to 'treasure a hurt'. Thats' the Irish! but, claerly, the Flemish are no slouches when it comes to harbouring ancient grudges either. Fascinating info. Thanks!

Yes, it looks like a commemorative piece. possibly official or semi-official but given the respect with which Jinna is held in pakistan, quite possibly a prvate piece made for sale/presentation during the celebrations.

You're probably right. i must confess I didn;t know that Italy was involved in that particular imperila adventure but if she was, your theory makes perfect sense.

Perhaps a private visit to Italy, enroute to of from postings in the Middle East or Far East? Just a thought.

I'm Canadian, so we don't get to CHOOSE cold weather but why would any Kiwi in his/her right mind choose Antarctica? More seriously, though, why would Scott Base have Ammunition Technical Officers, who I assume are some kind of ordnance techs? Surely they penguins aren't such a thread that the assigned personnel have to be armed?

Good luck in the hunt! You'll need both luck and patience, but it does happen. And welcome to the GMIC!

Thailand may well be a contender. Hard to say too much about the cryptic symbols except 'Not Roman letters nor Arabic numerals'.