peter monahan

The odd looking hat from which the flower issues is a heraldic 'chapeau' - an ermine trimmed red cap - and, in theory at least, part of the arms of a peer of the realm. The Black Prince had the crest on his arms issuing from one. Not sure that is a huge help except perhaps that it might indicate that the arms are those of the head of Clan Buchanan and not simply a badge for any member of that clan?

Hmm. That's clearer but, sadly, nothing leaps to mind. Perhaps another member will have ideas on this abbreviation.

An interesting selection, both in terms of the missions covered and the, if I may say so, widely varying aesthetic appeal. It must be very difficult to design a modern award which is both distinctive and visually appealing, but a couple of these look as though they were designed by a committee made up of the lowest bidders. I am coming down on the side of 'peacekeeping medals here' as the common theme, in my mind, trumps the nationalities of the awarding agencies/governments. My two cents worth.

Excellent! Now you'll have us all cruising the antique shops looking [and listening] for 'rattle-y' boxes! Lovely condition on what I suspect are two fairly rare belt plates. In favt, you might want to try and get a valuation and stow them soewhere safe!

Can you give us some context, Hasan? I assume you mean that 'NT' is a rank, but perhaps seeing the whole inscription will jog someone's mind. Thanks. Peter

Welcome Aboard, Bravo! I'm afraid I have nnothing to say about the medal but I'm sure others will. As I undersatnd it, 'Captain of the Foretop / Maintop' were appointments rather tan ranks so no idea what that would mean on a stone frigate. And I know that only because William Hall, the 2nd Canadian, and a negro, to win the VC, was 'Captain of the Foretop' in the Crimea. Naval collectors, over to you!

Live and learn. Some clever clogs in the Gunners should have gotten an extra stripe or pip for thinking that idea up!

Let's hope he gets the recognition he clearly deserves. Volunteering to sail from iceland to the UK without escort counts as brave all by itself, never mind both the marine and military dangers along the way.

Beauitful work! Pity the tailor didn't use a real colour scheme and pattern. Oh, for the days when such sewing was affordable! I just spent 4 hours hand sewing a set of medieval 'braies' or underwear. At any reaonable rate of return I'd have to charge $50-75 for them if I were selling same. That's why no one does this kind of work anymore!

Good Lord, are they faking Victory Medals now?

A post by Chris Boonzaier from 2010 - see below - says '710' on the rolls at one point and another 410 at a later date - these would be, I think, the actual rolls used to issue the medals and the numbers seem to indicate 2 different lots of names 'porcessed', but you can read the details below.

Lovely! And nonwe of your shoddy paper passes for an event of that importance. As Brett says, probably very collectable.

Wow! He must have had some serious dirt on the MO and the Colnel to have been allowed to stay in at that age. I assume that the age on the stone is correct but suspect that a check of the records would show a far lower number. Not uncommon, like the Irish rifleman whose grave in Tynecot Cemetery gives his age as '15'. presumably enlisted as '18' but by the time Imperial War Graves got the stone up somebody - family, I suspect - had corrected the record. There are two Canadian brothers, from my town, who died in '17 an 18 and, by there enlistment records were born the same year but the younger was 18 when he died, 2 years after enlistment, so clearly 16 when he joined and lied. And that will make establishing both youngest and oldest deaths/service tricky because many men gave false ages at both ends of the scale. But good luck with the project!

Clearly I am mistaken, then, about the correct ribbon - as illustrated on the award document. I was popping back and forth between several on-line sites and trying to sort out the earlier award from the later version and 'merit' from 'Civl Merit' However, it still looks to me as if the owner or his tailor used a substitute, a common enough practice with rare foreign awards, I'm afraid. I'm not sure how one would go about tracking down the owner, other than trolling the London Gazette or whatever the Chilean equivalent would be, if such exists, and I'm not familiar enough with the Gazette to guess whether or not such an award would appear there. Frustrating!

Not 'Sir', because I work for a living. Good luck with that. I'm sure the OMSA members would be interested.

Very impressive - both the medals and the accompanying information. You might consider cntacting OMSA - Orders and Medals Society of America - to see whether they have more information and /or whether they are interested in publishing an article on these medals if you are interested in writing one. [ http://www.omsa.org/ ]

Lovely looking pieces and I suspect that the Thai Korea qualifies as 'quite rare'. Sounds like a good price too. It's nice to hear that such finds are still possible in the less 'in touch' parts of the world!

Not my field, but I believe theat the Orders and Medals Society of America [OMSA http://www.omsa.org/ ] maintains a 'ribbon bank' for the use of members and, perhaps, others. It might be worth checking out if you plan to collect US medals.

Chris is quite active on the GMIC. You may PM him, if you wish, by clicking on his name at the top of any of his posts. Peter

The Order was instituted in 1906, 'For meritorious service provided by foreigners to the Republic of Chile', and at least one 1930s award was to a Luftwaffe officer, presumably attached to the German embassy in Chile, so it's a fair bet that the owner of this set was a military attache or some such in Chile. One point: all the illustraions I can find show that the Order ribbon is solid blue, while the red/white blue ribbon on this example seems to be the ribbon for the Chilean Order of Civil Merit so presumably at some point the original ribbon was replaced, either in error or because the owner wasn't able to get the correct ribbon, with one from a similar order. Here is an example of the Civil Merit order: https://www.emedals.com/an-chilean-order-of-civil-merit-knight

James I berlieve we have a number of members in southern Africa but am not sure what their collecting interests are. OTOH, dependiong on where you were thinking od selling, I suspect you would fins a lot of interest in Selous items, as such 'elite' units seem to fetch a real premium among some collectors. Good luck.

Thank you, Demir! This is exactly the sort of thing which makes the GMIC such a pleasure to be involved with. Your work is appreciated. Peter

"By Jove, I think he's got it!' Looks as if Welbeck College may be the answer. Well spotted, sir.

The badge is the Bronze one issued to members of the Indian Army who served in WWI! He must be wearing the WWI medals and the badge of arelative. Perhaps his father? Good eye, Bayern. I wasn't able to make out any detail on the shoulder straps except that they were wearing some kind of slip-on, but what you sat seems plausible.

My pleasure!