The Great War Medal Collectors Companion

[hussarbob]

I have the book and, as a small time collector, I have found it a most useful volume and I certainly think it is worth the price (especially as I got mine from NA at £50 inc postage!!)

It does have problems within it's pages. My main problem is with the numerous typesetting errors with offset columns. The font images are quite tricky to read and differentiate the different styles.

But on the whole it is well worth having and I will be getting Vol. 2 when it comes out.

[Derek Robertson]

I was quite saddened to see that the "Wauchope Medal" received just 2 sentences - and that lesser medals (IMHO), received large paragraphs.

Hopefully Howard will address this in Volume 2 as there seems to be quite a lot of info freely available on this medal on t'net.

And I'm quite astounded to see that the book can be bought from the NA for £20 less than I paid........

[Muerrisch]

I was quite saddened to see that the "Wauchope Medal" received just 2 sentences - and that lesser medals (IMHO), received large paragraphs.

Hopefully Howard will address this in Volume 2 as there seems to be quite a lot of info freely available on this medal on t'net.

And I'm quite astounded to see that the book can be bought from the NA for £20 less than I paid........

Yes the pricing tactics were/are a disaster: my copy came brand new from ebay and I got a bargain .......

[rflory]

One of the errors that I noticed immediately was on page 25 in the section on 'Detecting Copies of the First World War Campaign Medals'. The author makes the following statement concerning fake 1914 and 1914/15 Stars: 'The rear of the suspension ring is flat not slightly convex as it should be.'

This statement appears to indicate that all 1914-15 Stars with flat-backed reverse suspension rings are fake. A similar statement was made in Medal News a number of years ago and then retracted an issue or two later. A number of articles have been published, including one by John Hayward and another in the Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America, that indicate that flat-backed reverse suspensions characterize many, if not all, genuine 1914-15 Stars that were issued to British recipients after mid-1923 and are also characteristic of many (most) genuine Indian-issued 1914-15 Stars.

Dick Flory

[caulkheader]

I have read all the posts in this thread, including those from Grumpy, with an open mind. Having now received my copy, I think most of the comments are fair.

There are mistakes, but crikey, just look how much information is in there! These can always be corrected by rider in the re-print [if forthcoming]. And anyway, surely if the members are discussing the book, the greater the chance of those in-accuracies being brought out into the wider domain.

Thank you to grumpy for highlighting some of the 'irritants'.

A huge thank you to Howard for producing the tome in the first place.

Caulkheader

[Muerrisch]

Thank you. I suppose the bottom line is "would we rather have the money or the book?"

The book wins.

[Staffsyeoman]

Oh, the book wins, hands down. On seeing my copy at least two other people have bought it. And if it goes out of print and the price sky-rockets, well..

[ianw]

I bought direct from the author and paid a few £s more but figured that he deserved to be rewarded for his efforts.

It would be churlish for me to comment about the cost in any case because the whole purchase was financed by the profit from the sale of one of his earlier tomes. So these free monies have just been recycled.

Inevitable errors notwithstanding how else can one access so much information about Great War medals so easily?

[Lancashire Fusilier]

I just took delivery of this book, cost 60 pounds plus shipping.

My first impression, is this will be a wonderful reference book and resource. It contains all the information I expected, plus an enormous amount of other important information and statistics relating to medals and awards not normally found in such reference books.

A hefty book, which I am sure will prove to be a mine of medal and award information.

Highly recommended.

LF

[QSAMIKE]

Gentlemen and Ladies......

A statement was made which would you rather do spend 60 Pounds and possibly buy a dud piece or buy the book and be sure that your piece is original.........

BUY THE BOOK

I would also like to recommend for anyone that is interested in Canadian WW1 items a book that I have found just as great.......

MILITARY ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES OF THE GREAT WAR, A Canadian Collection by J. Victor Taboika, 2007, ISBN 1-894581-42-3 and ISBN 13: 978-1-894581-42-4......

This book also has saved me from making some incorrect purchases........ Note this a mans personal collection 363 Pages.....

Mike

[rflory]

Some errata:

1. Page 73 (upper right corner): in discussing a renamed 1914-1915 Star he states that the 'i' in 'Lieut.' and the 'I' in the surname of the officer should be sans serif.' While the vast majority of the 1914-1915 Stars to officers do use sans serif' 'I's a small percent, approx. 7 %, have seriffed 'I's.

2. Page 72: he states that his 1914-1915 Star naming Style 4 is a replacement naming. While this may be true some of the time this type of naming is found on stars to RA officers who were issued initial (not replacement) 1914-1915 Star after March 1925.

3. Page 91: again he states that sans serif 'I's are found only on other rank medals and not on officer medals. This is incorrect (see #1 above).

4. Page 25: in discussing 'copies/fakes' of the 1914 and 1914-1915 Star he states: 'The rear of the suspension ring is flat not slightly convex as it should be.' This implies that all 1914-1915 Stars with flat reverse suspension rings are copies/fakes, which is entirely inaccurate. This statement has been entirely refuted by John Hayword on the Spink website and by me in an article in The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America. 1914-1915 Stars with flat reverse suspension rings were issued as early as 26 October 1921 and most of the 1914-15 Stars issued after October 1922 had flat reverse suspension rings. Most 1914-1915 Stars issued to the Indian Army had flat reverse suspension rings.

5. His data on TFWMs issued to Royal Artillery officers is also inaccuate. The rolls contain the names of 453 officers with the following distribution by subdivisions of the RA:

HAC: 6

RA: 374

RFA: 44

RGA: 29

Total = 453

But some adjustments must be made:

1. Two officers with the surname ‘Thomson’ are listed on the RGA roll with the initials ‘E G’ and ‘E J’, but these are the same officer. His medal originally had the wrong initials (E J) but the medal was returned and reissued with the correct initials (E G).

2. Four officers are listed on both the RA and the RFA rolls.

3. Three officers are listed on both the RA and RGA rolls.

4. One officer is listed on both the RFA and RGA rolls.

Subtracting these nine officers brings us to a total of 444 different officers on the roll. It is not possible at this point to determine which subdivision of the RA was used in the naming of the above nine medals as only a few of the Medal Index Cards for these men indicate the corps of the RA to which the medals were named.

Those are the inaccuracies that come to mind at the moment. Howard's work is a great compliation of data that took many years to accomplish and is a wonderful contribution to the numismatics of Great War medals but I wish he had used a few less 'always' and 'never' statements. Dick Flory

[Muerrisch]

but I wish he had used a few less 'always' and 'never' statements. Dick Flory

I agree.

Thank you for adding to the errata.

41 years as a professional meteorologist taught me always to qualify 'never', and never to say 'always'.

Usually, that is.

E & OE

sort of.

[Ed ROBINSON]

Just got my book today. Fantastic work. One of the best in my reference collection.

[MBrockway]

You will find the reviews on the BMF under SERVICES Posted by Pete Sharp.Also shows you how to contact me and purchase the book.

<snip>

YOU WILL FIND THE FULL BOOK DETAILS INCLUDING CHAPTER CONTENTS ON THE BRITISH MEDALS FORUM.BEST W, HOWARD

It took me pushing 15 mins to locate this review topic on the BMF as Howard's name was not in the topic title and of course a search on any of the terms in the book's title returned massive numbers of hits!

For the convenience of other Pals, it's here: British Medal Forum topic - 'NEW BOOK - Great War Medal Collectors Companion'

You may need to register for the site before being able to read it.

Mark

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear Howard,

Your staying-power is to be commended for producing such massive reference works - at great financial risk, moreover. Well done!

Personally, I bought The Collectors and Researchers Guide to the Great War Vol I (but failed to buy Vol II, to my subsequent regret!). I have found that the Indian Army section continues to be invaluable, therefore making the book worth the cost many times over!

I also acquired The Great War Medal Collectors Companion Vol I and was much-impressed by the wealth of detail. As someone has already noted, the price is peanuts for a medal collector.

One point that I suggested, but was not acted upon (not surprising with such a mass of detail), concerned the non-abbreviated rank of captain on Australian Imperial Force British War and Victory Medals. My grandfather's are impressed:-

CAPTAIN W. F. LINDSAY, A. I. F.

(By comparison, British or Indian Army groups in my collection are impressed simply, CAPT. F. E. ELLIOT; CAPT. S. M. BODDY, etc.)

Kindest regards,

Kim.