peter monahan

I don't recognize the name, though the style is reminscent of Barnsfather's cartoons and I know I've seen this picture before. I suspect it was originally a cartoon which someone had printed up in colour, or tinted, for vetereans to hanf up and laugh at.

Times have changes indeed. My mother once sat and listened to a 'little Oriental looking man' - her description - deliver a few lines in a language which none of the 1,000+ people in the hall even recognized. The language was Inuktitut and he was what we unreconstructed imperialists would call an 'Eskimo'. He also displayed the numbered tag he was issued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and our federal government, used to keep track of he and his kin because their names were 'too hard' for the bureuacrats who showed up once a year to hand out 'gifts' to the King/Queen's loyal subjects! I think I'd be ok with medals named in the recipient's original language, even if it did cost a couple bob more.

Well, I'd buy an LSGC issued in Manx just for curiosity sake!

I suspect that the answer lies in the issuing authroity and provenance of the awards, which is the Crown, which operates, as far as I know, solely in English, whatever linguistic vagaries the outlying bits of the realm practice. [Joking! Joking!] As to why it doesn't change, aside from the inevitable screams of outrage from traditionalists of the non-Celtic/Manx/Cornish sort, two answers which are really one: inertia and, to quote the wonderful show 'Yes, Minister', 'When it not necessary to act, it is necessary NOT to act.'

Me too. The casualty rates among Stretcher Bearers and Medical Officers were the same as for rilfmen and two of the three 'double VCs' ever awarded were to MOs. I'm a humble SB and in our activities we portray the men who didn't survive the wounds and burials too. A number of the Chinese Labour Corps died while doing their work too - disease, unexploded ordnance and so on - and they were just cheap labour for the British, so got zero recognition at the time.

Thanks! I'm very involved with a group which portrays WWI Canadian medical Corps, so, sadly, grave diggers are a related theme. As they say, doctors get to bury their mistakes.

Very nice! And fairly rare, I would think, especially outside Greece. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting photo. I particularly like the mix of hat styles. Is this, do you think, made during or after the war? One of the great untold stories of WWI from the Allied perspective is the work done by the Chinese Labour Corps in locating and re-burying human remains, as well as salvaging equipment and scrap, in 1919-1920.

Sadly, the detail on the uniform is not sufficient to allow even establishing a rank, so it could be any one of hundreds of officers. I also wonder whether it is a personal portrait, made for a family member, or portrays a famous officer. If the latter, that may increase the odds of identifying it but the only way I can think of is to search for named portraits from the period and see if you find a match. It is a lovely thing and must have been dear to the original owner.

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.

And a very nice one too!

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!