MEDAL IDENTIFICATION

[Guest LEB]

I have identified two of my grandfather's medals, The Victory Medal and The British War Medal, however I have two others I cannot identify - can anyone please help?

The first one is silver, the front and reverse are exactly the same as the British War Medal, i.e. George V head and reverse - horse and rider, however the ribbon is the same as the Victory Medal - rainbow each side with red in the centre.

The other medal is exactly the same as the Victory Medal, although more gold colour (or maybe just cleaner) but the ribbon is just a narrow red, white and blue stripe. Also with his medals were extra ribbons, two red, white and blue striped and one orange blue black and white, as the British War Medal. Why would he have these ribbons - were they just replacements for those attached to the medals?

Any info. would be gratefully received.

[DirtyDick]

Seems like you have a Victory Medal with a 1914/15 Star ribbon incorrectly attached, and likewise a BWM with a Victory Medal Ribbon. Are these in addition to you g.f.'s medals - if so check their rims for naming.

Many medals have the incorrect ribbons attached if the recipients or their families made an error (WW1 medals did not come with a chart outlining correct ribbon for medals, as did WW2 awards, so if one had a BWM and Victory arrive together with unattached ribbons lengths (as they did) it's a 50/50 mistake that could be made.

Most likely the other ribbons were either spares or were replaced and retained.

British Victory Medals' colouration and patina do vary; I think dependent upon from which batch they came as much as the later environment/cleaning, so this is quite usual: the very 'gold' looking VMs came from a distinctive later(?) batch of issues from the early-mid '20s.

Richard

[Guest LEB]

Thank you so much for such a quick and informative reply! You can tell that I am new to this - I didn't realise that the name was on the edge of the medals - and yes I have one British War Medal and one Victory Medal in my grandfather's name and the other two are both in the name of one of his brother-in-law's. Thank you so much I think this is a fascinating site.

Very many thanks.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

(WW1 medals did not come with a chart outlining correct ribbon for medals,

But they did arrive with an issue slip typed on a scrap of paper & Xeroxed or whatever method of copying they used in 1920s detailing the Regulations for issue & also a similar one for the wearing of the MiD Emblem if awarded::see JPG attached for original examples.

[DirtyDick]

Hi Harry-Bernard-Roger-Henson-Betts

I have never seen one of these papers. Were they common to all services, or just for still-serving servicemen? I have had several 'complete' medal groups (box, issue slip, medal packets and postage envelope), but never had one of these among its number.

(Got an interesting SA WW2 group with all the above, still with the corrugated carboard insert to protect the medals in the post and individual medal envelopes stamped with enclosed award.)

Richard

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Hi DD;These were the only ones I had seen in 40 odd years of collecting,The 1914~1915 Star Document came with a Lincolnshire Group some 20 years ago,& the Victory Medal MiD Slip was found skulking around in a wad of Birthday & Holiday Postcards,@ a local Car Boot Sale,about 15 years hence,I have seen them listed with Groups & Trios Etc;on Dealers lists over the years,but in all less than a half dozen.I suppose like most ephemera the majority were binned

ATB:Roger{HB/BH}