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If you could tell us who he served with, then someone will probably be able to provide contact information for the applicable service, branch, corps or regimental museum.
Medal and Awards Research
- Thread starter gaspasser
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geo said:
NOTE NOT A MODERATOR STATEMENT AND NOT AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY ARMY.CA
I do not agree with your statement;
You deny the collector, who truly would honour these items, the right to do so.
We have talked about this time and time again. Tell me a museum that would have the budget to display and preserve these items. Selling them would offer a collector or a museum, with the budget, to care for them properly.
Don't let your passion of the military allow you to cloud the preservation of history.
dileas
tess
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Tess,
While I concurr with you that some private collectors being brought into the formula sounds good ... we end up with the situation where some of the medals of major military personas have left the country - gone for good so to speak... and that is a travesty in itself.... isn't it?
While I concurr with you that some private collectors being brought into the formula sounds good ... we end up with the situation where some of the medals of major military personas have left the country - gone for good so to speak... and that is a travesty in itself.... isn't it?
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geo said:
And some medals also come back to the country through the actions of individual collectors. Those medals which did leave the country did so only because those who could have prevented it for the reasons you might ascribe to be proper, failed to do so at the time. How or why this happened in individual cases might vary, but an underlying cause is most likely the lack of our society's appreciation for historical artifacts at a widely understood individual level. Without such a sense of social responsibility, medals go to the collector's market, to collectors who preserve and treasure that which a family no longer cares enough for to preserve, or to ensure its preservation in a museum or other institution. As mentioned, collectors also preserve the memory of servicemen whose legacy might otherwise be a set of medals collecting dust in a storeroom, never to see the light of day again.
There may be a travesty occuring, but it has not been wrought by the collectors. And the greater travesty which has been avoided is the discarding of medals without "value" to uncaring descendants if collectors were prevented from acquiring them.
I would suggest that any objective analysis would show that it's too late to try and enact laws to outlaw their sale. No doubt such a political manoeuvre would be as effective as the gun registry, and with even less social imperative to try and enforce it.
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Being so far from the last major conflict, you are probably correct that it is to late to do anything about it BUT
given that we are presently nominating many soldiers for medals of valour & gallantry, it might be time to at least talk about it....
But again - it's one's opinion - I care for my grand dad's decorations - and have a standing offer from the museum of the R22R to add them to their historical collection.
given that we are presently nominating many soldiers for medals of valour & gallantry, it might be time to at least talk about it....
But again - it's one's opinion - I care for my grand dad's decorations - and have a standing offer from the museum of the R22R to add them to their historical collection.
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geo said:
For sure a time to talk about it, however, as good the intensions are history has proven that most museum do not have the budget to care for such items. It is a lot more than the actual purchase of the medals, but whether they have the space to display all of them. Unfortunately, that is the true cost, and most articles lie in drawers of storage rooms. A collector will put money from their own pocket to properly display and honour the awards. The danger I see is that the honourable respect for our history, is going to stop collectors from doing just that, respect our history.
I laud you for respecting your Grand Dad's history by donating his medals, but the whim of the museum that receives them rests on budget and space, and they may either be displayed, stored, or down right sold off by them as well.
Just my opinion, based on experience.
dileas
tess
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As one of the "founders" and one of the origninal COs of the 22nd Bn CEF, the care of his medals is assured but, as you say, museums are limited in how many decorations they can display. I guess that if they end up with hundreds of donations that all contain the usual WW2 campaign stars, Volunteer medal, Victory medal, CD (or ED/VD) then it's difficult to contemplate displaying them all
F
fraserdw
Guest
Only racks of historical interest should go to museums and this should be law. Collectors are still the best preservers of such items but there should be laws prohibiting the breaking up of a rack or defacing any medals.
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Unfortunately, there are many broken medal groups out there. Sometimes this was done when families shared out a loved one's medals so that each could have a permanent token of their memory. To some, medals have far more value as shared treasures commemorating the memory of a loved one rather than just as a group of historical artifacts. Many collectors spend years seeking to rebuild dispersed groups.
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I know that tis threat is old but ... it's a good thing that people can sell medals because it gave me the chance to buy my uncles medals from an auction house. I'm trying to get a photo and the medals of all my reletives who served. Most are WW1 and WW2 vets but are all gone now.
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I agree but our family is so spread out across Canada. My parents and their generation were close in the 30s and 40s but after the war they seemed to move on and ties were broken. I know my first cousins but very little from any others. Now that my Mom has passed on, there is no living link to that generation any more. I have old photographs, names and in a few cases, old pay books. I know that we had a relative who was at Hong Kong when it fell. I can remember visiting him when I was a little guy and seeing the Japanese swords that he was given after being liberated. Another is buried in Sicily. I have the badges that were cut off his uniform before they buried him but I had to buy replacement medals for his frame. I can research their service and what medals they would have earned but as the World War 2 medals were not named (unless there was a gallantry or long service award) I will have to buy medals that are on the market if I want full size medals for their frames. I am still hunting my Great Uncle's World War 1 medals. He had served in all the big battles and was wounded three times. His last wife was a, shall we say unfriendly sort of person, and no one knows what ever happened to his medals. So I keep hunting ebay and other auction houses in the hope that I find them.
My Grandfather& my great uncle (died with no issue) both served in WWII and apparently never recieved their medals. No-one has any recollection in the family of either man having had medals. My grandfather is buried in the soldiers plot at Westlawn Memorial gardens in Edmonton. We do have his discharge papers, his name was Willard Sikstrom, we do know that he served overseas in the occupational forces. My Great Uncle Harry (Willard's brother) served here in canada training pilots for overseas, however we do not have copies of his discharge papers. Sadly both men passed away in their 40's (Willard from a heart attack at 42 and Harry at 47 in a car wreck). Is there a way to track down wether these men recieved medals or how to get my hands on them or even copies of the medals.
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Here's a good place to start. http://www.forces.gc.ca/hr/dhr-ddhr/eng/app_home_e.asp
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So, odd question. How would I go about returning medals to the member's ancestors?
I recently came into possession of my Great Grandfather's WW1 Medals, but in addition to his BWM and VM, there are 2 additional medals (a 1914 Star and a weird medal I'venever seen before) that do no share his name, regimental numbers or unit.
I honestly have no clue how he came into possession of these medals but I'd like to give them back to the rightful owner's ancestors.
any guidance?
I recently came into possession of my Great Grandfather's WW1 Medals, but in addition to his BWM and VM, there are 2 additional medals (a 1914 Star and a weird medal I'venever seen before) that do no share his name, regimental numbers or unit.
I honestly have no clue how he came into possession of these medals but I'd like to give them back to the rightful owner's ancestors.
any guidance?
Blackadder1916
Army.ca Veteran
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rmc_wannabe said:
Are the additional medals named? Do you have a photo of the "weird" medal or can you describe it and its ribbon?
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Blackadder1916 said:
Yes they are both stamped with Rank, name, regimental Numbers and units.
As for the "weird" medal; negative on the ribbon (I think it might have fallen off in the past ninety years....I can't remember this one having a ribbon), but the medal itself has pictures of various armour and weapons on the face and "For Good Behaviour and Conduct" enscribed on the back. No idea what this medal could be, any ideas? I've never seen it before in any of the medal charts i've looked at for this era.
