In an earlier blog I wrote about the Ashantee medal with Coomassie clasp. The intent was to introduce a roll compiled by Captain Douglas- Morris and reproduced on the OMSA website. Since I have an interest in medal provenance I began collecting information on all the medals
Read more →In early 1875 the Admiralty decided to discontinue the WIDE suspender LS & GC medal and introduce the Narrow suspender. This took the suspender width from 1½ to 1¼ inches. This doesn’t sound like much, but results in an significant visual reduction when compared side by side. Simultaneous
Read more →Since my last blogs, where I announced the Royal Navy WIDE suspender Long Service and Good Conduct medal roll and extant list, I have now added all the Royal Marines from the Douglas Morris roll, along with some more known extant medals. So please use this roll
Read more →The common approach to awarding British medals or clasps only for victories has a downside. What interesting events took place that were characterized as a defeat and therefore did not end up with a medal or clasp to commemorate the event? I don’t know much about
Read more →When I think of the sieges that took place during the Anglo- Boer War, I am reminded that Wepener gets included with the big three (Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking) by some. I can see the similarities but the siege which lasted 16 days was more a besiegement
Read more →During the Victorian era, there were many sieges, some small, some large, some lasting several days and others many months. Not all sieges resulted in medals or clasps to medals and the details of the defence or relief or a particular town or fort might best be
Read more →The Naval Long Service Medals by Kenneth Douglas-Morris originally published in 1991 contained a partial list of all recipients of the Wide suspender Long Service and Good Conduct medal. This list was based on reviewing thousands of individual RN service records in the ADM29, ADM139, and ADM188
Read more →Collecting Victorian Royal Naval medals has been a serious passion of mine for over 30+ years. It is therefore my desire and goal to pass along the wealth of knowledge that I have acquired and to show new collectors the ins and outs of researching such medals.
Read more →Many medal collectors look at curios made from medals and consider them to be defaced and the practice of converting them to jewelry, belt buckles or other artifacts to be sacrilegious. I find myself drawn to some of them as works of art and if the medal
Read more →While my last blog entry looked at researching a British soldier, this entry will look at researching a British officer in the East India Company’s Army. The medal group to this officer includes an Army of India medal, clasp Bhurtpoor, A Maharajapoor Star and a Sutlej medal
Read more →