Nice Prussian Life Saving Medal Bar

[Paul C]

Some of you may know where this came from. I jumped on it when I saw it this morning. A 4 place medal bar, regretable minus the medals which I will try to replace. The medals are, left to right, EK, Long Service Medal, Prussian Life Saving Medal and Kaiser Centennial. Per Rick, The bar is for an enlisted man and not officer because of the hooks. My question is... What timew period is this from? Pre-WWI or during. If I am going to replace the medal I need to know if I need a 1870 EK or a 1914.

[Guest Rick Research]

Actually, from the way the hooks are open, it was worn as a Frackspange like this:

[attachmentid=31167]

which suggests being worn on civilian clothes. Could be WW1 or might be something colonial that did not receive a MEDAL until the general prurpose Colonial Medal with all its bars was created just before WW1.

[Schießplatzmeister]

Hello Paul:

Rick is right (as always!). It looks like a long-serving soldier's group. I would surmise that due to the type of mount it is from the WWI era. Also, there is not 1870 campaign medal (as an 1870 EK recipient would have received). There is also no WWI service honor cross. So, we have a group after the 1870/71 conflict and before 1934 (the fellow probably didn't make it that long). The last medal of course is the 1897 Centennial medal, so he was in the service in 1897. He did no time in the colonies. To summarize, I vote for a 1914 EKII, and a Prussian long-service decoration for 15 years of service as he was probably a senior NCO with all of the time that he had in (1897-1914 minimum).

A very nice group. The mounting and assembly look a bit "homemade" which adds a bit of charm to it. I'm sure that this old timer was an asset to his squad on patrol. He obviously did something special to get the life-saving award (either before or during the war). I wonder is he made it through the war?

Best regards,

"SPM"