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Today I have added the Naval Gold Medal, Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840, and the Army Gold Cross to the British Campaign Medals section of the database. The Navy Gold Medal and the Army Gold Cross were awarded for participation in certain actions to senior officers (as was the Army Gold Medal which will be the next to be added here!), but the Naval General Service Medal was, along with the Army General Service Medal (also coming soon) the first genuine ‘campaign medals’ awarded to everyone who participated in the action or campaign in question, irrespective of rank.
It seems to me that it might be useful for you to know my main reference books as I compile this survey of British medals. They include: –
Abbott, P.E. and Tamplin, J.M.A. (1971) British Gallantry Awards Guinness Superlatives, London.
Barac, B. (2010) Reference Catalogue Orders, Medals and Decorations of the World Part II: Bronze Book (D-G), OBOL, Zagreb.
Duckers, P. (2013) British Military Medals: A Guide for the Collector and Family Historian 2nd Edition. Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley.
Gould, R.W. (1972) Campaign Medals of the British Army 1815-1972 Arms & Armour.
Mussell, J.W. (Ed.) (2016) Medals Yearbook 2016 Token Publishing Ltd., Deveon.
Hi Megan
Keep up the good work. I note your frequent emails which is good news. Otherwise I’d be thinking all OMSA communication was next to non-existent!
Graeme
Thank you, Graeme. I always used to check out new additions to the Images Database, so now it behoves me to tell you all what I have been putting there!
Today I have added the Maida Gold Medal, the Army Gold Medal and the Military General Service Medal 1793-1814 to the British Campaign Medals section of the database.
It’s tempting to say that today I met my Waterloo… but that has unfortunate connotations. What I have been doing is adding the British, Brunswick, Hannoverian, Nassau and Saxe-Gotha-Altberg Medals for Waterloo to the British Campaign Medals section of the database. You may wonder at the inclusion of the German medals, but that’s the way they are in the Medals Year Book, due no doubt to the close connections between the British and German States crowns at this time. Indeed the King of Britain was also Elector of Hannover.
Today I’ve continued with early British campaign medals, adding the Army of India Medal, the Ghuznee Medal, the British Legion Medal (Spanish Carlist Wars) and the St Jean d’Acre Medal… all of which are not actually British but were awarded to British servicemen (amongst others) for their contributions to foreign wars!
Today I have added three medals which all have the same ribbon – watered silk with red, white, yellow and blue – which were awarded for various actions during the First Afghan War. They are the Candahar, Ghuznee, Cabul Medal, the Jellalabad Medal, and the Medal for the Defence of Kelat-i-Ghilzie. The colourful ribbon is supposed to represent the sky of an Eastern sunrise.
This afternoon I have added the China War Medal 1842, the Scinde Campaign Medal and the Gwalior Star. The latter two both have the same ‘Eastern sunrise’ ribbon as last week’s medals (albeit the Gwalior Star’s ribbon is somewhat unofficial, it was originally issued to be worn pinned on the uniform although most recipients added a suspension and ribbon so they could wear it with their other medals!).
The Scinde Campaign Medal is one close to my heart. The only European troops who received it were members of the 22 (Cheshire) Regiment – in which, many years later, I had the honour to serve. Many tales are told in the regiment about this campaign, including Sir Charles Napier’s telegram when the campaign was over and the objective achieved – ‘Peccavi’ he wrote, the Latin for ‘I have sinned’!
Today’s medals are the Sutlej Medal 1846, the Punjab Medal 1849, and the South African Medal 1853: all representing the mid-1800s expansion of the British Empire. The Sutlej Medal is interesting in that there are four different reverses – each recipient was given a medal with the first battle in which he participated engraved on the reverse, any subsequent ones being represented by clasps. The Punjab Medal, however, was more conventional, with clasps for each action in which the recipient participated. Some medals were issued without a clasp, to those who served in the campaign but did not take part in any of the major battles for which clasps were awarded.
Today some more British campaign medals… even if the first one is unofficial, Sir Harry Smith’s Medal for Gallantry, invented by a Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope and awarded but 31 times! It’s here because it was, despite some disapproval, eventually accepted by the British Government although never made official.
The India General Service Medal 1854-1895, the Baltic Medal and the Crimea Medal have also been added.
Diverting a bit from British campaign medals today, due to a magnificent influx of lesser-known state and government departmental medals courtesy of Robin Nicholson I (el_jefe52 around here!). So far I’ve added medals to Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado and Delaware; a massive number of Civil Air Patrol awards and three from the Department of Commerce.
There’s more to come, fortunately I have a few days of leave coming up 🙂
More of Robin’s wonderful contributions today – starting with civilian awards made by the US Departments of Public Health, Interior and the Navy; then back to the states with awards (mostly National Guard) from the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minesota and Missouri.
And there’s more to come!!! Thanks, Robin.
Yet more of Robin’s contributions, today I added medals from New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Oklahoma, as well as the National Security Medal – I put that in the Presidential Awards category as it may be awarded to anyone – military or civilian, American or foreign – who makes an outstanding contribution to national security. Established in 1953, the last update to the terms of award was made in 2015 in a Executive Order issued by President Barrack Obama. Members of the US military, by the way, wear it after all military decorations and before campaign medals when in uniform.
And there are even more for next week!
Now completed uploading Robin Nicholson’s generous contribution of US (mostly state) award images with material from Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming, along with the US Border Patrol… and if that wasn’t enough, there’s a brand-new North Carolina National Guard medal contributed by arclight, the Soldier and Airman Medal, first awarded in March this year.
In adding the various National Guard medals, Robin’s book Decorations and Awards of the U.S. National Guard has been invaluable. You can find my review of it elsewhere on this site, and if you like National Guard medals you cannot really afford to be without it!
Yesterday I added a few US National Guard medals contributed by Mike Berger, and today from Gary Waer the Medal ‘Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR’. It’s wonderful that people are sending images in to enhance our collection – this isn’t the “Megan Show” 🙂 Thank you very much, Mike and Gary!
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