peter monahan

Nasty flashy stuff! I'm sure you'll quickly tire of it, then some charitable member will offer to take it off your hands at not too much of a loss. Renovations AND collecting? Who's a lucky boy, then? Very nice pieces indeed. Thanks for sharing. Peter

'You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time...' A Category 1 type?

Moninaka Here are two book titles which may be of use. I believe that the first one is still available through Harper Collins. I remember it's being published because of the publicity at the time around stories of the JB members who went up into Austria at the end of the war to kidnap Nazi officials. The Brigade, Howard Blum, Hardscrabble Entertainment, Inc. 2002 Beckham, Morris (1999). The Jewish Brigade: An Army With Two Masters, 1944-45. Sarpedon Publishers. ISBN 1-885119-56-9. For personal information on your grandfather perhaps one of our UK members can be of more help but having a direct family connection should, I think, allow you access to his records. here in canada only family members can get the detailed records and I think but am not sure that the same may be true there. Hope this is some small help. Peter

And if he weren't a soldier or a policeman wouldn't qualify for most medals, the exception of course being the George Cross, so the naming conventions used for other honours and awards would almost certainly have been followed. As Paul says: rank, name, unit.

I'd agree that it's not military and suspect it is a belt buckle or handbag clasp - based on the loops on the reverse - for a fashion item.

Yes, it is. One of our less glorious moments was the time, a decade or more ago, when the RCMP sold thew rights to that image to the Disney Corporation! Quietly, though there was Hell's own fuss when the news got out. I believe that has been rectified.

Very very nice. I had a mate, years ago, who was a fanatical DF collector and would literally drool over these! He wore and 'Old Bill' moustache and, in the winter, an ankle length buffalo robe coat with a fur cap atop, adorned with a DF cap badge. Quite the sight roaming the streets of Toronto in the 1980s! He eventually moved north where, I gather, he rides his horse into town in a Confederate States cavalry uniform to collect his mail. So, easy on the Guinnes, Noor! It plus DF badges apparently have a strange long term effect on the brain!

Sounds like a serious staff wallah! But a photo would be nice, yes, as that's an impressive rack of gongs and would look very very good on a dress uniform! Good luck with the hunt.

I was going to say 'watch fob' too. A nice, if not rare, piece of history.

Tell your bank manager / significant other that this was karma. You were meant to own both! And, yes, thanks for sharing the stories. As I recently said on another forum, I really believe that the RAMC and RE and their colonial offspring contained some of the bravest men in the forces. Many can be brave with a weapon in hand; to do what these men did day in and day out takes a bit extra, IMHO.

What Ken said!

The little mysteries which add interest to the hobby [obsessive behaviour]!

Michael, I couldn't agree more about the RAMC - in my case CAMC - and RE. I do a serious, full immersion WWI reenactment twice a year as a member of a CAMC unit ands,as I point out to anyone who'll let me, going over the top with no rifles was at least as hard as doing it with firepower at one's beck and call! The casualty rates among both those corps speak for themselves, and what any combat vet will tell you confirms it. No idea the source but as a teen I read an unofficial motto for a comat engineeer unit - 'First we dig 'em, then we die in 'em.' - which has always stuck with me! Fabulous collection. Cheers! Peter

Loevly work, gentlemen. Thanks for sharing. I am busy downloading WWI colourized shots for the education work I do, as I think some of the students I work with really believe the world was black and whitebefore about 1970!

Owain, that would make perfect sense. Thanks for enlightening me. I should have been able to figure out that the Egyptians were heavily involved, given how many Imperials passed through or were stationed there, but the brain was in weekend mode!

I'm a little ashamed to say that I don't know where Egypt and her army stood in relation to the beliggerents in the reat war, but the mention of the Italian Order intrigued me. I know that the various Allies regularly 'traded' awards among themselves. That is, for example, Col. Branfoot, a Captain in 1917, was awarded a Roumanian Order of the Crown even though he had never been withing 1,000 km of Roumania. His mess mates believed it was as a consolation prize for not getting an MC or DSO and that the Biritsh would simply have sent in his name to the Roumanian Embassy. I wonder if the Egyptian officer had any dealings with the Italian colonies in Africa or was, similarly, recognized for some non-Italian related service or deed.

What a wonderful story! It's fascinating to see the vestiges of the Victorian social system at work in the great war, with unofficial and semi-official units and efforst springign up and, of course, the upper classes 'doing their bit' for King and Empire. In fact, if there was mch to be admired in the Empire it was that sense of obligation - now often stigmatized by reference to 'the white man's burden' - which inspired many Britions. I often allude, when the topic comes up, to a plaque on the wall of St Paul's in Londion. It commemorates 4 brothers, the eldest of whom was 28 at his death. Three were in the West African colonial service and one in the Indian Army. All died of one or more tropical disease, prorably nastily, and it's safe to guess that none got or intended to get rich on the proceeds of imperialism. But I digress! Again, a lovely narrative to add to a single artifact. Thanks for posting it.

I feel your pain! There are a couple CEF badges I wouyldn't say no to myself but won't be shelling out $X00 for any time soon.

Well done, indeed! BTW, my comment on 'posh' was in reference to my humble status, not a dig at your collection or the RAMC and its successor and sister units. Yes, two of the three double VCs are to M.O.s and the WWI casualty rates among Mo.O.s make it clear that they did not, as per organizational charts, wait in the Aid Posts for the wounded to come to them. SBs, like the character I portray also took heavy casualties, shells and MG fire being no respecters of coloured arm bands or insignia!

See my comments on the Wehrmacht Awards Forum. Two of these badges for sale by a Canadian dealer at $1,000Cd each! Rare and, apparently, desireable.

Very nice!

Keep in mind that US troops overran most of the supply depots and factories responsible for the issue and manufacture of Nazi medals, awards and paraphenalia and that before the shooting was done there was a huge market for souvenirs, especially 'sexy' stuff like Iron Crosses and SS items. It's certainly the case, for example, that the US Marines on Guadalcanal had an industry going making 'Japanese battle flags' within weeks of the capture of the island. Similarly, Iron Crosses, as an example, were being manufactured from parts found in warehouses certainly by 1946 if not late '45. So, the fact that these came out of a vet's effects sugests that they are 'contemporary' to his service, but not that they were taken from sereving members of the SS. So, as Spasm says, important to your family I hope, but of far less imprtance to collectors.

Very nice indeed! I belong to a WWI re-enacvtment unit, 3rd Canadian casualty Clearing Staion, CAMC but don't aspire to anything more glamourous than my CAMC cap and collars and the Stretcher Bearer small red cross badges on each arm. Nothing near this posh!

OTOH, you were able to keep the group together, which always counts as a win for those of us who care about and understand medals. Well done, sir.

Pieter I think a document initialled by His Imperial Majesty will do for we mere mortals. Thank you for sharing it. Most of us will never have either the gelt or the inclination to be Lord Ashcroft but, personally, I'd be as happy with a musket ball fired on the battlefield at Waterloo as with a Marshall's uniform and were I still collecting medals, many of the 1813-15 awards to the Allied troops hold great appeal for me. I was on the battlefield, in the [reproduction] uniform of a British staff officer on the 200th anniversary of the battle last June and that in itself was very special. The culmination of 20 years of re-enacting and hard to beat as a living history experience!