Red Cross Medal (BULGARIA)

[AlexLev]

Hello, dear friends! 

I would like to collect an information about Bulgarian Red Cross Medal. From what I know at the moment is the following:

The medal was instituted by Royal Decree No. 9 on 15 February 1918. Circular medal with laterally-pierced cylinder for ribbon suspension had size 33 mm. The trifold ribbon was red, with white and white-green (alternating narrow strips) strips at the edges. This medal was awarded for acts of philanthropy, charity and humanity during World War I, also for merits to the Red Cross Movement in three classes – Gold (actually the gilt bronze), Silver and Bronze. The Silver class medals were awarded for 15 years of service in the Bulgarian Red Cross, and the Gold class medals - for 20 years of service.

The face with three concentric circles – in the center of the innermost circle was a Greek (Geneva) cross, rays around the second circle, the outer circle inscribed БЪЛГАРСКО ДРУЖЕСТВО „ЧЕРВЕНЪ КРЪСТЪ” (“Bulgarian Society of the Red Cross” in Bulgarian). The reverse with a heraldic shield (escutcheon of the German type) supporting the Bulgarian royal crown and bearing the Bulgarian crowned lion rampant with the Saxon coat of arms imposed on its breast; a laurel wreath encircled the shield.

There were two types of the medal:

Type I – Silver and Bronze classes. The face with vertical hatching of the Greek (Geneva) cross, denoting the heraldic red color (gules); the second circle had the date “1915” at the top (the date of Bulgaria’s entry into World War I); the outer circle inscribed БЪЛГАРСКО ДРУЖЕСТВО „ЧЕРВЕНЪ КРЪСТЪ”. The heraldic shield in the reverse was encircled by a laurel wreath and inscribed below ЗА ПРИЗНАТЕЛНОСТЬ (“for appreciation” in Bulgarian).

Type II – Gold and Silver classes, instituted in 1929. The face with red enamel Greek (Geneva) cross; the outer circle inscribed ЗА БЛАГОТВОРИТЕЛНОСТЬ (“for philanthropy” in Bulgarian) below and БЪЛГАРСКО ДРУЖЕСТВО „ЧЕРВЕНЪ КРЪСТЪ” above. The heraldic shield in the reverse was encircled by a laurel wreath and inscribed below ОТЪ ПРИЗНАТЕЛНОСТЬ ("from appreciation" in Bulgarian).

Any additional information is very welcome, thanks!!!

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by AlexLev

[AlexLev]

Seems to be that this medal (Type I, Bronze class) was worn by its owner very often as the inscription on the reverse side is a little bit frayed (because of cloth friction), the suspension ring was probably replaced that time also...

Edited January 3, 2018 by AlexLev

[AlexLev]

The most interesting questions are the exact mint companies for this medal (there are no any mintmarks on the Bronze medal...), amount of awarded persons and the period of awarding (I guess the medal was awarded in 1918-1944, but it remains unclear were the medals of the type I awarded till 1929 only when the type II was introduced or together with the type II during the whole period of Tsar Boris III's rule till the abolishment of monarchy?).

Edited January 3, 2018 by AlexLev

[AlexLev]

The local Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC) organization was established in May 1878 in Sofia after the liberation of the Principality of Bulgaria and the region of Eastern Rumelia from the Ottoman Empire in order to help the wounded men after the Russo-Turkish War 1877-1878. The Bulgarian Society of the Red Cross was established on 20 September 1885 when aforementioned Bulgarian provinces were united together (officially the Society was recognized by the International Commitee of the Red Cross on 20 October 1885). During World War I, the BRC was very active in assisting the wounded and sicken soldiers with charity sisters, sanitary trains and field hospitals. Significant contributions to BRC were made personally by Tsar Boris III (a supreme patron of BRC) during the period of 1918-1943. Also Tsaritsa Eleonore (wife of Tsar Ferdinand I from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty) and Tsaritsa Giovanna (wife of Tsar Boris III) patronized the BRC. In 1928 the BRC helped a lot to victims of strong Chirpan earthquake in the South Bulgaria. The contribution of BRC in development of healthcare system in Bulgaria was great as a lot of hospitals were built that time as well as first aid training courses for nurses were organized across the country.  In 1937 Rapid Medical Assistance was established in Bulgaria, and in 1940 - the Blood Donation.

Edited January 5, 2018 by AlexLev

[AlexLev]

Nobody knows additional facts on the Red Cross Medal?

[new world]

Alex, I am having hard time understanding the purpose of you taking the text almost unchanged from Professor Pavlov's book and posting it here. Most collectors with serious interest in Bulgarian awards already own one edition of his book, so what's the value of you starting multiple threads with the same content copied from the books?   

[AlexLev]

Hi, new world! Unfortunatelly, I don’t have the Pavlov’s book yet. But I have 4 volumes about world’s decorations by Borna Barac (but this manuscript contains more illustrations than text information). So you are absolutely wrong in your assumption and excuses from your side are very welcome. I am using Internet resources, for instance, medal-medaille.com, and several others. But there are some different info among them. And of course, if you read the text at least a little bit carefully, you will see that it is completelly mine, but based on combined information I could find in internet and other forums; the design description I am writing using medals from my collection or known photos as well as I am making the own translations of all inscriptions. I never copy the foreigner’s texts, but carefully analyze the info I could find in different sources, try to check it and write my own quite interesting (as I hope) texts always! It will be very useful for all forummembers to combine all information concerning particular decoration all together (including photos from collections), this is obvious.

 So if you don’t know the answers on questions I’ve asked in post 3 here, I am having hard time to understanding the purpose of your post.

Edited January 6, 2018 by AlexLev

[new world]

Really, the text is completely yours? Let's compare just the beginning of your post:

Your post #1 in this thread:

The medal was instituted by Royal Decree No. 9 on 15 February 1918.

 

Professor Pavlov's book, page 435, edition 2015:

"The first emission was introduced by Decree No. 9 on February 15, 1918."  

 

Your post:

The face with three concentric circles – in the center of the innermost circle... 

Pavlov's book:

"The averse of the medal contains three concentric circles. In the centre of the field, within the innermost circle..."   

 

Not only it adds zero useful information, it also would be qualified as plagiarism by my college professors without properly quoting the source.  

[AlexLev]

What did you add here about the Red Cross Medal and/or the history of Bulgarian Red Cross? Nothing (ZERO).

As I have mentioned one time already, you are absolutely wrong and obviously you know almost nothing about plagiarism (I know very well, being the professor and journal editor for a long time already, but not in history, which is just my hobby). You are really add a zero (even very minus) info here, please, strictly avoid to do this in future (and, as I have already mentioned too, your excuses are very welcome!). And you have a bad memory, as I've already asked you about Petrov's book in my post #16 from 20 December 2017 in the Medal of Merit thread (I still don't buy it, but is going to do this)...How to mention the information about exact date of medal institution or about its face/reverse design? Everybody uses quite the same words in such cases, me too, when I am working on my own texts. See here, just look at this page (no any citing of Petrov's book, by the way), almost the same text also, because the subject is the same and the majority of known information can be descibed with just the few sentences - 

http://www.medal-medaille.com/sold/product_info.php?cPath=498_44&products_id=3223

http://www.medal-medaille.com/sold/product_info.php?cPath=498_44&products_id=8663

By the way, if you are really interested in decorations, you should know that, for instance, the description of coat of arms should be given according to strict heraldic rules only, so in every correct and knowledgable source the corresponding description is almost identical as there are no other ways to mention the same information.

Quoting the source is necessary, but in this case - Royal Decree No. 9 only, with its exact document number from state archive!

Yes, and I am not sure that I wrote 100% correct info here - “the Gold class of medals - for 20 years of service”... I found several mentions that it was awarded for 25 years of service. Need to check.... What does Pavlov’s book say about the Gold class and years of service?

Edited January 7, 2018 by AlexLev

[AlexLev]

5 hours ago, new world said:

Your post #1 in this thread:

The medal was instituted by Royal Decree No. 9 on 15 February 1918.

 

Professor Pavlov's book, page 435, edition 2015:

"The first emission was introduced by Decree No. 9 on February 15, 1918." 

Not only it adds zero useful information, it also would be qualified as plagiarism 

Stupid incivility of some guys ("gentlemen") is a quite annoying thing, by the way. It will be better to put them into the black list sometimes...

Boris III was born on 30 January 1894 in Sofia or the Bulgarian Red Cross was established in May 1878 in Sofia. A huge amount of sources mention these facts and in this particular way,  and if I would like to mention this information in my OWN text here also, this has nothing common with plagiarism. Also this is a very useful information here for men who didn't know about this before...The forum is not a peer-reviewed research article or habilitation thesis with a huge reference list to corresponding research data, so if somebody wants to know source of information in the forum text (in the case of interesting disputes, of course), he needs just to ask for this. And ask very polite and respectfully, of course.

Edited January 7, 2018 by AlexLev