War Medals

[Coldicote]

An old Dad of our family was a soldier in Belgium in the First World War. Several years ago an unthinking relative disposed of his war medals. I don’t know what happened to them but, if they still exist, I’m wondering if there is any hope ot tracking them down perhaps through a collector or museum. Any ideas welcome.

[Mamyalynne]

There's a chance if they were disposed of locally that an appeal in your local newspaper may yield results.

[SirOracle]

Firstly Coldicote do you know which medals they were ?Without this information it will be very difficult if not impossible.

[tamborine]

Fill in forces details here.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-medal-or-veterans-badge/apply-for-a-medal

[Peter Pedant]

There are a variety of medal indexes of which this one
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/medals/british-ww1-medal-records.htm

but I dont know if you have to pay

earlier medals have name around the edge but in WW! there were so many that they stopped doing it

so if your relative has flogged them I think that is it I'm afraid
[ I think of this each time I see Dicko's deal and people flogging family objects for a few quid ]

[tonyav]

You could find out what medals he was awarded, have a look at this link.
https://www.gov.uk/the-ministry-of-defence-medal-office

[Coldicote]

A lot of information here, thank you very much. I understand his service was in the RFA (Royal Field Artillery). There is obviously a lot of research work to do here and I'll have to wait a few more days to go to work on it. Again many thanks.

[tonyav]

It should be interesting though, Coldicote. Please let us know how it goes.

[bert_h]

The standard three war medals were colloquially referred to as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred. They were a bronze star, a gilded circular Victory medal, and a silver medal with the king's head on one side (George V).

If those were the three medals, then I'm sorry to say that the chance of them still existing is rather low. All through the 1950's these were appearing almost every weekend at the big secondhand market in our city's east end. Dad would pay four shillings for the set, put the two base metal ones in the bin, and the silver one into a box with lots of other silver scrap, to go to a bullion dealer when it had all reached a decent quantity. The medal was about the size of a five-shilling piece, so it melted for just about that.

[EDDIE51]

If you can find which ones he got there are a lot on sale on eBay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1311.R3.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xmedals&_nkw=ww1+medals&_sacat=0
You may be able to buy replacements, but as said most of them were not 'personalised' so finding the originals is going to be impossible.

[jno]

just to explain bert's post

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/pip_squeak_wilfred.jpg

[Dodger666]

You could try his name in this website, better still if you know his regiment and service number. :-

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/home

If you find him you can apply for a copy of his "Medal Card" for £3.00. I acquired my grandfather's this way. After you pay your £3.00 you can download the medal card. You will have to register with the website to do this.