peter monahan

Indeed! Lovely things. I particularly like the last one, but then that may be because I have a similar hat I wear in the summer, with the brim flat, not turned up! Thanks for sharing these.

Nothing screams 'wrong' to me, but for the kind of money I assume is involved, you might want to consider contacting a museum or high end auction house for an opinion. Sadly, there is just no substitute for holding the thing in one's hand. A friend, Peter Twist of HistoricalTwist, here in Canada, makes his living producing museum quality reproductions of [mostly British] uniforms from the 1760-1820 period and anything he has made in the last 30 years would be indistinguishable from an original except for deliberately added mistakes, to prevent fraud, and aging. The bearskin on this one looks to me very like a number I saw last summer which are modern repros. which have been worn daily for a decade, so that isn't a warning sign to me but... There are enough good copies out there now, never mind the fakers work, that even an experienced collector like the vendor can make mistakes. Again, not trying to queer his pitch. I assume he's sell it 'pending verification' and were they my shekels, I'd even consider paying for an expert appraisal. My ratrher long-winded tuppence worth. Good luck!

I assume that the Gazette refers to a group of awards, as most do, especially for the MM. I looked up one and the list ran to 40 pages. OTOH, now that you have a regiment and battalion number and at least a general dating, you can try your luck with the regimental war diaries. I understand that the NAM Archives has put them on line and this site seems to be the access: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-war-diaries-1914-1922/ I've just done researching 70 Canadians and sadly, the amount of info. on private soldeirs found in most war diaries is minimal. As an example, they may, at best record that 'Lt Firstname Secondname, Sgt Secondname and three Orther Ranks' were killed on date X'. Not too surprising, as the diaries were meant to be a general record, but if you're lucky and the Adjutant was a keener, they can include lists of men gazetted for awards and so on. Worth a look anyway. Looking is feree but downloads may cost on the NAM site, it says. Good luck!

Nice one, William! presumably a 'bring back' by a Tommy who acquired it at Devil Wood. looks to be in good nick too.

Perhaps just as well. I saw, yesterday, one dated '1931' which sold on ebay for hundreds of pounds! This suggests to me that these are well worth the attention of the fakers and forgers, so you might have gotten your fingers burned. It's a pity that the world is as it is and the 'hobby' is beset with such trickery, but...

I appreciate Mike's point, as I have a smattering of museum training and experience, but even museums do some restoration/repair if not doing so would mean the destruction of the artifact by age and neglect. I must confess I blanched when I read "restitiching... using WW2 vintage cotton thread" But I'm hoping that means the stitches actually holding the pieces together and not any of the embroidery, as venturing into the latter area probably crosses the nebulous line between 'conservation' and 'improvement'. Way too early for me to have an informed opinion as well, but I would think that provenance, if any, would be important. As recently as 100 years ago, such things were made for military tattoos, parades, and display, by hand using techniques indeistinguisable form the original manufacture but the sheer amount of work involved might one to think this is NOT a reproduction. Either way, it is a truly lovely piece. If you'd like to PM me, I have a friend whose business is the creation and restoration of museum quality uniforms form the period in question and he may have some useful ideas if you get in touch with him. Peter

And when he got one he spent it on British shako plates of the Napoleonic period, which I believe still live in a shoe box in Casa Johnson. Michael is 'canny wi' his sil'er', as the Scots say. But then, he comes of Yorkshire stock, so no wonder!

Ouch!

BlackWatch Welcome back to the GMIC! Thansk for sharing this lovely example of a bush hat. The only thing I can offer in answer to your questions is to paraphrase comments by George MacDonald Fraser, author of the 'Flashman' series. In his Private McAuslan stories, young Lt. 'Dand' - Fraser himself - describes joining a battalion of the Seaforths in N Africa in late '45/early '46 still wearing his Burma slouch, which he refers to as being used as a 'Hotel' [ie, slept under] and ubiquitous dress item. I would assume that helmets were worn as rarely as one could get away with in the Far East and that would have meant that some combat included men in slouches, but presumably a look for period photos at the IWM of the campaign would confirm that. I don't recall seeing many examples of British slouches on the market over the years but as I don'd collect them, I may have missed them. I'd guess, however, that they are fairly rare: attractive but not 'typical' and hard to transport and store.

Nice to hear some good news out of the nation's capital, whatever one's political stripe!

JayBeth You're very welcome. Good luck with the hunt! Peter

I share Michael's feelings. Though I misremembered the details, my first WWI medal purchase was one from a box of singletons and those few of us who collected to the Indian Army regularly cursed the 'pickers'' and dealers in India/Pakistan who bought medals at bullion value and either refused or threw away any bronze ones. As recently as last year I was in a coin shop in a large mall near Toronto and found a half dozen medals of various sorts. Two, in separate cases across the shop from each other, were to a Lt. in the RAF. I now own them, though have little expectation of ever finding out anything useful about his career, as he was a late entry and almost certainly not a pilot. [Very common surname.] Not doen for an 'attaboy' but because I couldn't bear to see them broken up.

I agree; I'm no expert but it looks like a good one. No idea what a fair price is but if you Google 'shaska' and 'Imperial' you may get some idea.

A new, better casting? Wow! You don't suppose we have someone in Ottawa who cares about the military, do you? Na, couldn't be.

JayBeth Welcome to the GMIC! I just checked Army Historian's profile and he last visited the GMIC on Feb 28, 2014, so you may need to try contacting him directly. If you click on his 'name' the site should let you write him a private message which he may or may not get, as he was apparently quite an active poster - 3,000+ posts - up to that time but has not posted since. But perhaps you've already thought of that. The other option may be to try and track him down at the California Center for Military History, where he is apparently a Captain, first name George. Anyway, try that and if it doesn't work we'll try to think of something else. Perhaps other members know of him? Peter

While the rest of us are still scratching our heads over 'TFWM', Paul answers the question. Well done, that bearded man!

Written in a lovely blend of 'Military' and 'Govspeak'! 'If you can figure out what this means, there may be a medal bar in it for you!' Thanks for posting this, Frank!

Gary Welcome to the GMIC! South Africa is a closed book to me, I'm afraid and one of our oldest and most helpfull members is sadly no longer with us, but Audrey at Rhino Research [rhino.research@icon.co.za] would almost certainly be able to help and will certainly know whether or not rolls exist. Perhaps some of our SA members can be of assitance in answering the genral question: do rolls exist for SAs in WWI service? Peter

Juat coming to this post, Fazakerley. [BTW, I'm in Alliston]. I don't see any 'Gurdon' listed as serving with the Cdn forces in WWI, so assume he's a Brit. Some of our members can give you better info. as to availibility of records. I did get some info. on two cdns in the RFC/RAF recently, at a fairly minimal cost, for a book I'm doing, so a look at his service records should tell you at least a little on wher he served and so on. Sorry I have nothing more helpful. Good luck with the hunt!

What dond said. Nice kit!

BWM = British War Medal. The other common abreviations are VM for Victory Medal and '14 Star' or '14-'15 Star'. Sorry! Others can speak to the availability of info. on which ships a man served on, though off the top of my head I'd guess his medals would indicate that. RN types, true? As to whether you can get obe to every ship... Hmm. I think the RN had 15+ carriers, almost 20 heavy cruisers and over 200 destroyers by the war's end, never mind subs and other classes, so thst should keep you busy for a bit, certainly. I'm clearly conflating two different medals! Blast this middle-aged brain!

It certainly looks like copper, which must be afirly unusual, as even in a tourist piece it is odd to have a blade which clearly cannot be used. Nice piece, though, and I'd agree it is probably Toureg. I picked up two nice ones in Tchad or Burkina Faso [Haute Volta then] but lost one in a set of luggage on an airplane ride back to Nigeria. My eldest daughter grabbed the other years ago to add to her 'blade' collectiion but it's a standard iron/steel blade with a wooden handle carved to look like an antelope horn and a lovely embossed leather scabbard.

What a lovely set! Thanks for sharing it. Also, Dave, thanks for the handy info. on unscrewing the order. It would never have occurred to me to try such a thing. Not that I own any White Elephants, but one never knows!

Agreed, Cazk. My very first medla was a sliver BWM, one of 40-50 in a box on their way to a smelter back in the '80s when two brothers in texas tried to corner the silver market. 'Pte R. Milner, W Yorkshire Reg't'. $10.00 Cdn, which was a dollar below its bullion value! It would probably cost me upwards of $100 today, as he was a first day of the Somme casualty, though it took me years to confirm that. Now even singles to corps are getting up there. I'd go with a unit, or a battle or campaign to narrow the field, were it me. And hold out for something special. I saw a single BWM to a Captain recently, for $100.00, I think. Turns out he was a farm boy from the UK who joied the Cdn Expeditionary Force, tried 2 or 3 times to pass exams for officer training, finally got a commission, was commended for bravery and died a month after joining his new unit. I may grab it yet!