White-Black noncom EK2 medalbar

[CHRIS W]

It took me awhile but I finally got nice medalbar with the white & black ribbon EK2 What can you tell about this guys career. Was he a doctor or a lifetime desk jockey? Also do you think this a wartime piece or 1920's? Thanks for looking and your input

Chris

[CHRIS W]

Nice blue backing!

[Bob Hunter]

I like the bar! Could have been a medic. I'm curoious as to why the two long service decorations aren't mounted together. I'm sure Rick will be along directly and 'splain it to us all.

[Jason]

Lovely Chris, its always worth waiting for something like this one, congrats!!

cheers Jason

[Guest Rick Research]

This guy was a noncommissioned or petty officer (General Decoration Medal in silver and XV) on continuous active duty from at least 1896 (Centenary Medal 1897) to 1920 (XXV for non-officers).

The blue backing suggests but cannot actually say, that he was a naval Petty Officer or Deck Officer. The peacetime General Decoration suggests he had about 18+ years of active duty in by 1914, which fits with the Centenary Medal as joined in 1896 at the latest.

This is once again (why do I only see them HERE??? Why don't I have one???) a "triple" of the noncombatant EK2, War Effort Cross, and wartime (zink) Red Cross Medal 3rd Class. Very hard to determine why or how all three ended up being awarded-- just enjoy the fact that YOU have one of these "triples" and I don't!

This guy did not hear guns fired by an enemy during the war, which makes his achievement of All Three at Top Sergeant or Warrant Officer level truly amazing.

The XXV Years Service Cross was authorized for military officials (which this guy WAS NOT-- with that XV he was some clerical branch of a combatant arm of SOME sort, even if indeed a desk jockey at something like a Bezirkskommando office or a Werftdivision staff) and noncommisioned officers only in 1914, just when the war started, so none were actually awarded to them until after the war because Prussia and the navy suspended long service awards for the duration.

So this is a 1920+ medal bar. What that XXV tells us is that he had more than the minimal "18 pension years" (WW1 counted as "10" for regulars, as did pre-war overseas service) the Weimar Republic required in order to give such Warrant and NCO/PO ranks a retirement "bump up" on demobilization in 1920--

so the person who wore this medal bar's last military title was either

Leutnant aD or

Leutnant der Marine aD

The XXV and XV should NOT be worn together. He was a naughty man. This is very typical of the non-regulation wear of medals in the 1920s. Nothing whatsoever wrong with it except that irregularity.

[Stogieman]

Hi Chris, nice snag and a bargain price as well. Watched you bid until the end.

[Paul R]

Beautiful piece Jason!

[CHRIS W]

@Rick thanks for the break down of my bar. It's all the variants and combinations that make collecting Imperial so interesting.

@Stogie it's about time I got one. I have just missed so many over the last several years.

I have one more question I have seen the Verdienst Um Den Staat medal mounted both ways. Is mine mounted correctly or is it backwards?

Edited December 30, 2005 by CHRIS W