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Sorry no update this Sunday – the perfect storm of daughter moving out to her first apartment and our dishwasher giving up the ghost: the only peace I’ve had this weekend is a scant hour in church! Otherwise running around like a scalded earwig fetching and carrying and shopping and stuff (not helped by me being the only driver in the family – husband is partially-sighted so gave up driving!).
Back now, and added the Turkish Crimea War Medal and the Indian Mutiny Medal to the British Campaign Medals section of the website.
The Turkish Crimea War Medal is interesting as it was awarded as a campaign medal to British, French and Sardinian troops by the Ottoman Empire. There was a subtly-different design for each nationality… only many of the British ones were lost at sea before they could be handed out, so most British troops ended up with the Sardinian version!
Today I’ve added the Second China War Medal and the New Zealand Medal to the British Campaign Medals section of the database.
The New Zealand Medal covers TWO wars, 1845-1847 and 1860-1866, and is remarkable in that the years served by the recipient are die-stamped on the reverse, leading to some 28 variants. Needless to say I have not tracked them all down yet!
Today I have added the Abyssinian War Medal, the Canada General Service Medal, the Ashantee Medal and the South Africa Medal 1877-1879 to the British Campaign Medals section of the database.
Today’s British Campaign Medals are the Afghanistan Medal (did you know the British and Russians have been squabbling over Afghanistan since the 1870s?), the Kabul to Kandahar Star (which marked a spectactular march to relieve the siege of Kandahar during that conflict) and, switching continents, the Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal, rather belatedly issued in 1900 to mark three campaigns in the area in the 1880s.
I have added the Egypt Medal 1882 and the Khedive’s Star to the British Campaign Medals section today. Both were awarded for campaigning in Egypt from 1882-1889 (and the final award of the Khedive’s Star for an action in 1891); and most British troops who received the (British) Egypt Medal also got the Khedive’s Star, which was awarded by Khedive Tewfik of Egypt. This accounts for why so many Egypt Medals look a bit battered! Apparently the Khedive’s Star was manufactured in Birmingham in England.
Today I added the following to the British Campaign Medals section of the database: General Gordon’s Star for Khartoum, the North West Canada Medal and the Royal Niger Company’s Medal.
General Gordon’s Star for Khartoum was a morale-raising unofficial award that he had made, it is said, by a local metalworker using his Order of the Medijdie (Turkey) star as a pattern.
Been very busy the past couple of weeks (sorry!), but finally got to sit down yesterday and continue with British Campaign Medals. I added the short-lived Imperial British East Africa Company’s Medal (the rarest of these company medals with only a handful awarded), the East and West Africa Medal and started on the British South Africa Company Medal: there are no less than four variations but I have managed to find pictures of all of them and will add them soon.
I also have a new Morton & Eden catalogue to look through. As you may be aware, they are one of the auction houses that have been generous enough to allow us the run of their catalogues for the OMSA database, so I’ll see what choice goodies can be added here.
Finished adding the British South Africa Company Medal, and also added the Hunza Nagar Badge, a nice little relic of the Great Game as played out around India and the states to the north, with Russia attempting to gain an influence over assorted local groups.
This afternoon I added the Central Africa Medal and the Hong Kong Plague Medal, the latter being an unofficial award made by the Hong Kong administration to those who gave aid during an outbreak of bubonic plague there. Recipients were not permitted to wear it in uniform.
Today I’ve only managed 2 medals for the British Campaign Medals section (there was a massive outage of the University network, just when some of my students were trying to hand in projects – I teach a distance course that doesn’t conform to regular semesters…).
So today you have the India Medal 1896-1902 (with Victoria and Edward VII versions) and the Jummoo and Kashmir Medal, awarded by the Sultan of Jummoo and Kashmir to Indian troops who helped him defend Chitral.
Today I have added the Ashanti Star, the Queen’s Sudan Medal and the Khedive’s Sudan Medal to the British Campaign Medals section of the database.
This (mostly) sunny Sunday afternoon, I have added the East and Central Africa Medal and associated Uganda Star (a very rare beast indeed) and two British North Borneo Company Medals which between them cover almost 20 years pacifying North Borneo – a place now known as Sabah, Malaysia.
It’s rather grey and dull in Cheshire this afternoon, so I have brightened myself up with the Queen’s South Africa Medal 1899-1902, the Queen’s Mediterranean Medal, and the King’s South Africa Medal 1901-1902.
Quite a swarm of people went to help the war effort in South Africa, and after last week’s collection of medals to those who fought, this week sees some medals for those who looked after them: the St Andrew’s Ambulance Association Medal for South Africa, the St John Ambulance Brigade Medal for South Africa and the National Fire Brigade’s Union Medal for South Africa – this last to paramedic-trained fire fighters who worked as stretcher bearers and ambulance crew, they didn’t go to fight fires! Most recipients also received the Queen’s South Africa Medal for their service.
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