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    British Campaign Medals 1914-2005
    British Campaign Medals 1914-2005
    British Campaign Medals 1914-2005
    Ebook129 pages48 minutes

    British Campaign Medals 1914-2005

    By Peter Duckers

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    About this ebook

    Surveys the medals awarded to British personnel for military services from the First World War to operations of British forces in the opening years of the twenty-first century. The campaign medals awarded for the military actions have become a popular field for collectors, since the majority of British awards were officially named.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 20, 2011
    ISBN9780747811732
    British Campaign Medals 1914-2005
    Author

    Peter Duckers

    Peter Duckers has been a collector of British campaign and gallanary medals for many years and now specialises in awards ito the Indian Army. He is a Fellow of the royal Asiatic Society, a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society, the Military Historical Society and the Indian Military Historical Society. He is the curator of the Shropshire Regimental Museum at the Castle, Shrewsbury.

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      British Campaign Medals 1914-2005 - Peter Duckers

      Basic terms

      Campaign medals

      Campaign medals are awards for service in a particular campaign or battle, given for being present within a designated area and timespan, without regard to the recipient’s rank or achievements (in contrast to gallantry awards or decorations). Campaign medals are worn in chronological order of award, outwards from the centre of the wearer’s left chest. Decorations and gallantry awards are worn to the left of the group (as viewed) and foreign awards to the right.

      Medals are issued at formal parades and ceremonies or are sent by post, each medal within a small card box. They are also awarded to the designated next of kin of a recipient who was killed or died from any cause whilst on active service.

      Clasps

      These are single-faced metal bars attached directly to the medal (or in some later examples sewn on to the ribbon) indicating service in a particular campaign (for example Iraq or Malaya). Most carry side flanges to enable them to be fixed to the suspension and riveted to each other, so that new ones can be attached as earned. Usually the first-earned clasp is nearest the medal, so that the latest-earned is at the top, but clasps are occasionally found in the wrong order – perhaps sent to the recipient at a later date and attached wrongly – and often in a variety of unofficial ways, such as with wire. Collectors commonly (though not strictly correctly) also refer to clasps as ‘bars’.

      As they were issued: boxes, packets and certificates issued with the Second World War stars and medals.

      The principal parts and features of a medal.

      New collectors should try to be sure that the clasps on a medal are the ones given to the recipient and not later additions by a soldier who wanted to claim more or added for fraudulent purposes. There was no limit to the number of clasps a man could wear on a particular medal – so long as he had earned them!

      Materials

      Most British awards are made of silver, though some later ones (especially those mass-produced for the two world wars or later UN or NATO medals) have been issued in cupro-nickel, bronze or various alloys. The majority of British campaign awards are circular, usually 36 mm in diameter.

      Ribbons

      Medals are worn suspended from their own specific ribbons, whose colours often have some heraldic or symbolic significance. Ribbons are usually 32 mm wide, and about 4 cm of ribbon are meant to show when worn, but many ribbons bearing a number of clasps would be longer and there seems never to have been a hard and fast usage amongst recipients.

      Obverse

      The side of the medal bearing the reigning monarch’s effigy and titles or the Royal Cypher.

      Reverse

      The side of the medal bearing a decorative design, which may have a symbolic or allegorical meaning, or simply some form of wording. The designs were often put out to competition or tender and the designer’s initials or name are sometimes found on the reverse.

      Suspension

      The means of fastening the ribbon and clasps to the medal disc by means of a bar attached to a claw or through a ring. Many British medals have swivelling suspensions – in other words the medal can be turned around to show either side whilst still displaying the correct side of the clasp. Medals are meant to be worn with the obverse (the monarch’s effigy) facing the viewer. The suspension carrying the ribbon can be plain or ornamented. Stars have a simple ring suspension and were not designed to bear clasps, which are simply stitched on to the

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