peter monahan

No nibbles, Gordon? I'd say the style is European, not Commonwealth, so if it's older would tend to France or one of the Germanies, but if its newer - and the graphic suggests it is, that only means a European maker, so could be anywhere! Obviously medical and the colours, barring the central blue, are red/white/green, so perhaps Italian? The letters - mangled to fit round the caduceus - look like 'R W G V' to me, but that rings no bells. Maybe one of the Italian members/experts could shed some light. Possibly a medical volunteer/first aid group? Also wondering whether the blue with a circle of asterisks is meant to echo the EU gold stars on blue. Some random musings. Sorry its not more. Peter

I agree, Brian. This is a fascinating little bit of Indian history!

Coming back to that must be absolutely, mind-blowingly depressing! Acres and acres of water borne crap to shovel away, so you find your life's prized possessions and put them in a garbage bag. I think more and more as I watch see these scenes in the news that were I evacuating ahead of fire or flood, s**w the jewellery and electronics, I'd save the photo albums and favourite outfit, 'cause when the crews go home that might well be all that would be left. Where would you even begin to start the rebuild? Kudos and medals to the relief teams for sure, but probably deserved by some of the quiet survivors who just went back in and got on with their lives!

Looks like a friend of mine after a hard night at the pub! I'm going to stick my neck out and say 'not British', but that hardly narrows it down. Besides the 17th, the Leib Hussaren regiments and the SS, how many other groups wore skulls? Pirates, WWI assault troops, various 'elite' commando types, Serbian militia [yech!] and ... Peter

Odulf While I know little about British swords, I know NOTHING about Dutch swords! So.. could very well be his Dutch Honour Sword. Either way, lovely portrait and a rare honour for Admiral Van Capellen. Peter

"They were commanded by a Squadron Leader John Eric James "Jackie" Sing, DFC and, apparently, flew "Rhubarbs" Not Raspberries, John? Seriously, had to go look that one up! [low level strike sorties, right?]

Heusy Thanks for the excellent pictures and good detailed descriptions of the medals! Well done. I have looked at some photos of the NPS, including some of senior officers on parade and none of them seem to be wearing any medals or ribbons. Instead some have pins, circular and gold or shiled shaped and enamelled over their left pockets, where I would expect to see medals worn. Pperhaps some kind of commendation? Peter PS NPS has a Facebook page - go there to see the photos I mean.

Mervyn I didn't actually intend to make a case for it being British - "The square ivory grip looks as if it could be British style, but there were lots and lots of European swords which look very like some of the British ones". I was just musing on Brian's comments that he hadn't found it in his source books and suggesting that it might not be in the books because it was a 'one off'. However, it may be the case, perhaps more likely the case, that its a Dutch sword on a Dutch Admiral! And, as its a formal portrait, he would wear his best sword, wouldn't he, not his swinging through the rigging one? Peter BTW, it looks a certainty now that Siobhan will be at U Capetown from February on, if they accept her credentials and money. probably for a full year!

I've always loved that quintessentially British approach to the army: "You raise a regiment, pay all its bills and we'll let you name it after yourself. Or whatever." Exceeded only by the sheer genius of requiring people to accept the title of 'baron' and charging them for the privilege!

Very fine work, Rogi. Thanks a lot for sharing!

The square ivory grip looks as if it could be British style, but there were lots and lots of European swords which look very like some of the British ones. Mervyn is right about the standard 'patriotic' presentation swords given to Napoleonic heroes - usually curved a la light infantry and cavalry sabres. However, a special Honour Sword would, I think, be by definition non-regulation so, not in the books, Brian . Presumably the King, if he awarded it, would have ordered 'something special', either with specific details he wanted to see or leaving it to the discretion of the makers. Very possibly a 'one off' though it would certainly follow the general style of the time and perhaps in this case, of the Navy. My tuppence 'orth Peter

RFA would make sense. there is a seat on the limber [for two gunners] and I think I can see spur straps on the sergeant, who would have been mounted separately, I think, while the rest of the crew rode the limber and gun team.

I would say that the brooch mount precludes its being used as a military badge in this configuration. OTOH, it would be a pretty heavy brooch! A puzzle for sure. I agree too that it's very likely Georgian, so a nice find whatever its exact antecedents.

I shall have to put my spies to work then!

My pleasure! :)

Very nice! The leather one looks quite like some of the Boer War/WWI style Cdn sword knots.

No, not Cdn. :(

I would guess, from the condition of the edge and the fact that he has only the two 'been there' bars, no battle bars, that he likely only qualified for the single medal for SA and, depending on when he joined and left the army, perhaps only the one medal for his career, if he wasn't a regular army man. Always liked the QSA, though its only tangentially related to my interests - a few were issued to the Indian Army, mostly to cavalry sowars who went out with remounts from India and a couple who served as 'aides' to Lord Roberts. It is an attractive design, however, and I've always liked the ribbon. And, of course, it marks a significant point and event in the course of Britain's imperial progress. Peter

Superb work, Colin! Thank you for sharing your talent with us. Peter

Here is the story in its entirety. Emphasis mine Black Canadian soldier’s life and D-Day exploits remembered Lester Brown, a black Canadian veteran who fought in D-Day kept nightmares from the war from his family. They pressed him to open up and he did. Lester Brown, a Canadian Second World War veteran, had secrets he was keeping from his grandchildren and other close relatives. Brown, 92, a Chatham-area resident believed by his family and local historians to be the last surviving black Canadian soldier to fight in the bloody D-Day invasion of 1944, passed away last week at a hospital in Wallaceburg, Ont. For decades, all that grandchildren Tracey Brown, 42 and her cousin, Lamont, 41, knew as youngsters about their grandpa was that he was wounded in action in France. “He was a man of few words and growing up we knew not to even ask about it (Brown’s war experiences),’’ Lamont Brown said in an interview Tuesday. The grandchildren wanted more details, and pressed him. They needed to know, for the sake of family history. Finally, about five years ago, Lester opened up to his family and a news reporter and told the harrowing tale of getting ambushed by German forces a few days after he and the other soldiers in his company stormed Juno Beach at Normandy. Rifleman Lester Brown had been drafted at 23 and later assigned to the Queen’s Own Rifles before being shipped to Europe in 1944. A few days after landing in Nazi-occupied France on June 6, he and his platoon were ordered to take Bretteville-sur-Laize. Seeing an Allied tank on the road, Brown and another soldier hurried towards it but came under fire by a German ambush. He managed to save himself but later found the other soldier dead, in a pool of blood from being shot in the head. Brown was wounded in the knee and took a bullet to the chin, which looked terrible at first but left only a facial scar. “I was lucky, no doubt about it’’ he told a CTV News reporter in the 2009 interview. After sharing the stories, Lester told his brother that he experienced nightmares and had trouble sleeping. Black soldiers were accepted into the Canadian forces in the Second World War, and though there were still some vestiges of segregation, hundreds of Canadian black fighters served alongside their white counterparts. Brown said he was treated fairly by his officers and fellow soldiers. When he returned home he married and had three children. He worked as a railway porter, and later graduated to a conductor for Canadian Pacific Railway. Brown’s family and the Buxton Museum, in North Buxton, Ont. — which features tributes to the achievements of blacks who came to Canada after fleeing slavery in the U.S., and their descendants — says Lester Brown was the last surviving black Canadian veteran to have fought in the D-Day invasion. The Memory Project, and Veterans Affairs Canada said they couldn’t confirm whether Brown was the last survivor; a Veterans Affairs spokesperson said they don’t have race-based data from that conflict. Tracey Brown says she understands why her grandfather would have been initially reticent about sharing the “death and gore’’ he witnessed in combat, but is glad for the family’s sake that the details came out in the end. “He was a living history (lesson)’’ she says. Brown’s funeral was last Sunday at the North Buxton Community Church, in the Chatham area.

No, there were no segregated units in War Two. The Queen's Own Rifles, was a Toronto unit and may well have had a number of black soldiers in it. There were all Black Construction battalions from the Maritimes, where there were large numbers of Black recruits - the descendants of Loyalists who came to Canada in 1776 - and it was felt 'unwise' to have mixed units. Otherwise, individual Black, Chinese, Japanese and at least 10 Sikhs joined CEF units for WWI and served without any noticeable fanfare or officially recognized friction, though one of the Sikhs was accused of stealing money, having had cash in hand after a leave to Paris. That ended badly. He was apparently persecuted by the RSM, who'd made the original allegation, punched the RSM in the nose and was given 90 days confinement. After some weeks he went to hospital with a 'swollen face' - toothache or duffed up by the warders? - then back to his battalion, where he died on October 28th, 1918. The Chatham district, as mentioned, has a fair population of 'old' Black families, so I assume someone was keeping track of all the Black servicemen they could and decided that this chap was the last, though our Veterans Affairs Dept. says they have no info. on that. Even for WWI, a search of individual records would be needed to ascertain race, so 'Singh' is an easy one and, presumably, 'Nakamura', 'Wong' or 'Cardinal' [common First Nations surname]. As the WWII records are not generally available from the gov't., one would be dependant on anecdotal evidence to determine which race. Peter

A short article in today's Toronto paper suggests that the man probably the last Black Canadian D-Day vet passed this week at age 92. He was wounded a week after hitting the beach while supporting an armoured attack, shot in the leg and chin. In fact the small scar on his chin was evident in a photo with the story. He never spoke of his experience until the last few years, when his grandchildren urged him to tell them his story. After the war he became a railway porter, a common occupation for Cdn Blacks, who couldn't be on the train crews but could serve the passengers. Similarly, for many years, blacks on the Great Lakes were cooks but not seamen. He retired to the Chatham area, which has a large-ish black population descended from some of the successful users of the Underground Railway.

Jean-Sam The RCDs only adopted that title as their main unit designation after they arrived in South Africa in 1900 so I think it unlikely the wore the RCD title there and the 2 photos of them in SA I could find on a quick search don't look as if they have any shoulder titles. [see footnote below]. The khaki service dress was introduced in 1903 and probably the shoulder titles were introduced about that time. In WWI most regiments were ordered to wear "CANADA" shoulder titles, until 1917 when unit titles were finally allowed. A few regular units, including the RCDs wore their own titles from 1914 on. That applied to Other Ranks. Officers generally wore the CANADA title below their rank badges, and collar and cap badges identifying their units. I hope this helps. The RCDs wore shoulder titles in WWII as well, but they were a different pattern or, actually two patterns. The change must have come sometime in the '20s or '30s, probably in the '30s. Peter "A second Canadian contingent arrived in South Africa in the period January-March 1900. The success of the Boers’ mounted commando tactics had persuaded British commanders that their enemy would best be countered by similar mobile mounted units. Thus, the new Canadian contingent consisted of the 1st and 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR). The former was renamed the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) after its arrival, with the latter becoming the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles" http://www.warmuseum.ca/education/online-educational-resources/dispatches/for-queen-and-country-canadians-and-the-south-african-war-1899-1902/

Nice looking piece, Jock, but I'll let Mervyn say what he thinks, as he actually knows stuff!

Leuss I thought I answered yesterday but my post doesn't show. Sorry! How long have you had this item? I'm not sure any more but I think anything past 20 years old is probably good. This looks to be good quality except for the way the crown in the reverse centre is too low. Is it loose? Sometimes they slip down. It's also hard to say from photos, as weight and the feel of the finish is important too. Any info. at all on the source might also help. Peter