British Commonwealth Decorations Rackbuilder

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

I am pleased to announce a rackbuilder showing the ribbons of British Commonwealth countries, including the orders and medals of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. While there are several rackbuilders for US medals (mostly military medals), I have never met on the Net any rackbuilder for the British Commonwealth. So far only a rackbuilder for Canada and a very old ribbon checker for the United Kingdom have been available on my website, but Autralians and New Zealanders have not had a chance to build their racks. I hope you will enjoy the new rackbuilder. It may still have some errors or omissions, but please bear in mind that the work on the rackbuilder is always in progress. As usual, your comments are most welcomed.

British Commonwealth Decorations Ribbon Rackbuilder:

http://www.medals.lava.pl/bc/bcframe.htm

Here are a few racks of some notable recipients, most of which based on the photos from the Australian War Memorial and other museums:

Best regards,

Lukasz

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

[deptfordboy]

Pretty nifty - thanks for sharing! I have already played with this for some of my more interesting groups.

Gilbert

[Tiger-pie]

Excellant. Only one small critisism, the Interfet medal, which is an Aussie award that in precedence comes after the AASM.

Had great fun making up groups.

Regards;

Johnsy

Edited July 26, 2007 by Tiger-pie

[Herr General]

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

Thank you a lot for huge response and for many words of appreciation of the rackbuilder. I hope all errors pointed out by you have been fixed. I do my best to remove all bugs, but if you have to deal with hundreds of ribbons, you may omit something.

This rackbuilder has been my idea for quite a long time, although completing it took more time than I expected.

A question that has been put forward is how to save your racks. Unfortunately, at the moment my ISP does not provide the possibility to create ready graphics files with php. If I change my ISP or manage to convince my current one to enable this service I will redo the script. For now you must copy the rack to a graphics software (Paint Shop Pro, GIMP etc.) using ctrl-c or print-screen and ctrl-v keys, and then save it as a graphic file. A hint: save the graphics as a gif or png file, avoid jpg files as they are likely to distort colours.

I am glad you enjoy the rackbuilder. I am open to your suggestions and error reports. You can contact me either here or directly to my e-mail address: lgaszewski@lava.pl

Best regards,

Lukasz

[Lukasz Gaszewski]

Thank you once more for all comments. The work on the rackbuilder continues. Here are some major changes/additions made recently:

1. Added: Turkish Crimea Medal, Egypt's Khedive's Sudan Medal, The Sudan Defence Force General Service Medal.

2. Khedive's Sudan Medal and India General Service Medal 1908-35 can be worn either before or after WWI medals.

3. Naval General Service Medal, 1915-1962 and Army & RAF General Service Medal, 1918-1962 can be worn before or after WWII medals or after the Korea Medal.

4. Campaign Service Medal, 1962-2000 divided into eras: pre-Vietnam, post-Vietnam, post-Falklands, post-Gulf and post-Ex-Yugoslavia.

5. Queen's Commendation for Bravery (QCB), Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air (QCBA), Queen's Commendation For Bravery (QCVS)and Mention in Despatches (MID) in silver added.

6. Rosettes added to the Operational Service Medal and Iraq Campaign Medal.

7. It is now possible to build the rack from the bottom up. Just one more switch on the front panel, but several extra integrated circuits inside!

You are welcomed to show the results of your work on the forum. I guess everybody will be interested.

Best regards,

Lukasz

[TacHel]

Lucas, is the rack builder still running? I can't seem to be able to connect to it...:unsure:

[Megan]

There is an error on the Europe page in the link to the Commonwealth rackbuilder, it ought to be http://www.medals.pl/bc/

It's there and working fine once you get to the beast!

[Greg]

Dear Lukasz

I just experimented with your rack builder again. Thank you for building it. It is very useful and great fun.

In the interests of making it even more accurate, I offer the following:

1. In Australia, the St John's Life saving medal is worn on the right breast, along with all State awards (except Western Australia) - State Police, AFP, Fire etc & the Pride of Australia medal.

2. The NZ awards are "Foreign" and are worn at the end following the long service and Commemmoratives.

3. The British Gulf Medal (1990-1991) and all other British medals (except the highest Orders above the Royal Victorian Order & OStJ) are "Foreign" and worn at the end in order of permission being given to wear them. Even the MBE is "Foreign" now and worn at the end with other Foreign awards unless it was granted prior to 1975 (or 1996 in Queensland). It is very unlikely to be permitted these days. With the exception of the Royal Victorian Order, no awards of the United Kingdom may be conferred upon Australian citizens unless they are servicemen or women on exchange and serving with elements of the Armed Forces of the UK.

4. The Order of St John Service medal is worn following any other OStJ medals, and not with the other service medals. The Order of Wearing Australian Honours and Awards" states "Listed to indicate where any awards within the Order of St John should be worn" following the Medal of the Order of Australia. It may not make sense but there it is.

Yours,

Greg.

Thank you once more for all comments. The work on the rackbuilder continues. Here are some major changes/additions made recently:

1. Added: Turkish Crimea Medal, Egypt's Khedive's Sudan Medal, The Sudan Defence Force General Service Medal.

2. Khedive's Sudan Medal and India General Service Medal 1908-35 can be worn either before or after WWI medals.

3. Naval General Service Medal, 1915-1962 and Army & RAF General Service Medal, 1918-1962 can be worn before or after WWII medals or after the Korea Medal.

4. Campaign Service Medal, 1962-2000 divided into eras: pre-Vietnam, post-Vietnam, post-Falklands, post-Gulf and post-Ex-Yugoslavia.

5. Queen's Commendation for Bravery (QCB), Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air (QCBA), Queen's Commendation For Bravery (QCVS)and Mention in Despatches (MID) in silver added.

6. Rosettes added to the Operational Service Medal and Iraq Campaign Medal.

7. It is now possible to build the rack from the bottom up. Just one more switch on the front panel, but several extra integrated circuits inside!

You are welcomed to show the results of your work on the forum. I guess everybody will be interested.

Best regards,

Lukasz

[servicepub]

Great resource! Thanks for building it. Any chance of adding 'tour numerals' to the UN medals. 90 days consecutive service earns you the medal and every additional 180 days of consecutive service gets you a numeral, starting with '2'. Details here - http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhr-ddhr/chc-tdh/chart-tableau-eng.asp?ref=Numerals

Clive

[Iron Cross Diamonds]

Are you going to add the new General Service Medal 2008 to British Commonwealth decorations rack builder?  It was introduced in 2016.