Belgium Belgian order of Leopold ll

[Laurence Strong]

Here also is a Knight's level of the order, looks like most of the gilt has worn off

[Laurence Strong]

Previously seen, the Gold medal of the order

[David Gregory]

Laurence,

These are very attractive awards.

After only a passing interest, I abandoned Third Reich awards a few years ago (but paperwork still fascinates me). My main interest lies in Imperial German documents and the more common awards, but I have been led astray by some French and British awards and documents of the 1914-18 period.

With the exception of a victory medal, I still have nothing to represent Belgium's part in the Great War. This is another collecting field that is sorely tempting.

Do these awards date from that period or are they more recent? Were these awarded for merit or valour? Do you have examples of any award documents?

David

[Dave Danner]

Generally, the Order of Leopold II was given for long service as well as merit, similar to the Prussian Red Eagle and Crown Orders in peacetime.

The Knight's Badge shown above is bilingual, so post-World War Two. Here is a French-only version, as awarded from 1900 to 1950:

Here is an assortment of World War One medals - the Yser Medal, the Frontline Service Cross, the Commemorative Medal of the Campaign 1914-1918 and the World War I Victory Medal:

The second one, the Frontline Service Cross, is also called the Fire Cross (Croix de Feu / Vuurkruis) and to me is one of the more striking Belgian medals.

Last is a War Cross (Croix de Guerre / Oorlogskruis). This is the World War One version, similar to Laurence's in the other thread:

Edited November 10, 2005 by Dave Danner

[David Gregory]

Dave,

Thanks for showing those awards, which are the sort of approximate front-line soldier's "equivalents" that I am looking for to match the German ones I have.

How do the earler and later Croix de Guerre types differ? Specifically, which are typically for 1914-18 and which are much later?

What are the other differences between the earlier and later orders apart from the language?

Many thanks in advance,

David

[Laurence Strong]

Thanks dave I am new at this and am awaiting some reference books. I knew that they went bilingual in the '50s.

[Dave Danner]

Dave,

Thanks for showing those awards, which are the sort of approximate front-line soldier's "equivalents" that I am looking for to match the German ones I have.

How do the earler and later Croix de Guerre types differ? Specifically, which are typically for 1914-18 and which are much later?

What are the other differences between the earlier and later orders apart from the language?

Many thanks in advance,

David

Other than adding the Flemish "Eendracht maakt macht", the orders are unchanged, but manufacturing variations show up over a century and among different jewelers/makers.

The War Cross for WW1 and the one for WW2 have different ribbons and different ciphers on the reverse. WW1 has the cipher for King Albert, and the WW2 version has that of King Leopold III. The palms also have ciphers.

For the Korean War, the WW2 version of the War Cros was used, but after 1952, the cipher on the palm was changed. Originally, it was two Ls, the second one reversed, with the III in between, but after 1952 it was changed to a cursive L.

I would recommend to you Hendrik Meersschaert's web site for more information: http://users.skynet.be/hendrik/index.html

[Hendrik]

Hello Laurence,

Just joined the forum and came across your Leopold II knight cross. I don't think the gilding wore off : knight crosses are silver/silvered bronze ... more likely to be patina.

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Laurence Strong]

Thanks Hendrik and welcome to the forum, If I make any mistakes fell free to let me know.

[Ed_Haynes]

Welcome Hendrik!!

[Laurence Strong]

Now you would not be the Hendrik from the web site are you?

http://users.skynet.be/hendrik/

[Chris Boonzaier]

Now you would not be the Hendrik from the web site are you?

http://users.skynet.be/hendrik/

Yup... he is

Hopefully we can encourage him to stay

[Hendrik]

Welcome Hendrik!!

Thanks to all for the welcome - Glad to come across you again Ed, it's been a while

[Stijn David]

Hi hendrik,

Nice to see you over here => hopefully we can get a tommorow + looking forward towards the theme that you will present !!!

Cordial greetings,

[Hendrik]

Hello Stijn,

Nice to be talking English with you for a change

Yes, see you tomorrow but the may go wrong as I have guests at home in the evening ! Raincheck seems to be in order there ...

C U

Hendrik

[Christophe]

Hello Stijn,

Nice to be talking English with you for a change

Yes, see you tomorrow but the may go wrong as I have guests at home in the evening ! Raincheck seems to be in order there ...

C U

Hendrik

Hendrik,

Just to say : Welcome on board!!

Your site is a real gold mine. I appreciate and consult it for years, now!!! Congrats!!

Cheers.

Ch.

[Hendrik]

Thanks Christophe !

Seeing you are based in "la belle France", you might wish to have a look at the thread on the Syria-Cilicia Medal (aka the Levant Medal) ... I can do with some more information on that one

[Christophe]

Hi Hendrik,

I've seen one about this medal in this Forum, initiated by Ed... Is it this one? I can't find yours...

Welcome again.

Cheers.

Ch.

Edited November 27, 2005 by Christophe

[Hendrik]

Yes, Christophe, that's the one ...

[Christophe]

Super thread!!!!

At the time I posted, it was not visible on the Forum...

Cheers.

Ch.

[Hendrik]

My latest with respect to this order : a Grand Officer breast star made by Fisch in Brussels and marked '950' silver ... used to belong to a high ranking official in the Belgian Finance Ministry.

[attachmentid=24186]

[g_deploige]

The golden medal of The Order of Leopold II

here 2 examples with the text only in Dutch "EENDRACHT MAAKT MACHT" (it is not official)

before 1952 it was "L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE"

after 1952 "L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE - EENDRACHT MAAKT MACHT"

[g_deploige]

Detail of the center of the left one

[g_deploige]

Detail of the center of the right one

[Jacky]

This will be my first post to this wonderfull site...

I'm visiting this site already for quite a long time and thought that it would be time to register myself..

As a collector of belgian medals, my mouth goes watering of all those wonderfull medals....

From a fellow I got those pictures,

this medal had been found in a junk-shop... complete with box.... bought for a very low price....

Junk or real??

Give me your 2 cents..

I myself consider this a quite ugly example...

The gold laurels around the cross are upside down...

The cross and the laurels are glued on something and than that something is glued on the breast-star.

This can be observed between the cross and the laurels, normaliter one would be able to see the silver rays between the cross, but in this particular case, only the wavy gold disc can be seen....

At last, it's also ugly because of the bi-lingual center-disc

No matter with the dutch language, as I'm dutch too, but I do consider the higher quality, pre 1951 thus mono-lingual, more preferable......

And french always sounds sexier on those medals

Will add more images in next post...

Couldn't attach a higher resolution on this post, it keeps on going crazy with me

Kind Regards.

Edited May 31, 2006 by Jacky