Chile order of merit group

[Old Bid]

Hello, A friend of mine has purchased a miniature group of medals that include the chile order of merit plus First World War and KSA medals. How would he go about finding out who they were awarded to ? I have asked him for a photo of them and when I get it I will post on here.

 

Regards

[ForeignGong]

Hi Old Bird

The Chilean Al Merito as follows

1st Cl Military X 1,   2nd Cl Military X 3,   2nd Cl Civil X 1,   3rd Cl Military X 1.

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33025/page/1424  this has 1 x 1st Cl and 2 x 2nd Cl   

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/32949/page/4887 this has 1 X 2nd Cl   

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33056/page/3944 this has 1 X 3rd Cl  

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33111/page/8029 this has the civilian 2nd Cl     

 

Hope this helps with your research.

 

peter

 

You will notice one has a MC and another has CMG, MVO, so that should cut down the number of recipients.

 

When you find out who the minis belong to could you please let me know so I can add the other medals in his group to my database.

 

Good luck and good hunting

 

Edited 17 March , 2017 by ForeignGong
More info

[Old Bid]

Hi, Foreign Gong,

       Thankyou for this info it should make tracking the recipient easier, and yes I will keep you informed when identified.

 

Regards

[HarryBrook]

The fact that the group includes the K.S.A. [King's South Africa Medal] would exclude, because of their age, the following mentioned in the London Gazette notifications in post #2:-

Frank Pilkington Scott was born on 22 January 1888

Charles Edward Murray Pickthorn was born 1897

Oswald William [Allan] Manning was born 4 July 1895

Arthur Richard Seabrook was born 28 November 1893

 

The medal group of Vice Admiral George Napier Tomlin R.N. was sold at auction in 2007 and his medals entitlement in the auction catalogue listing on Wikipedia does not include the K.S.A.

 

Of the ones listed in the Gazette notifications that leaves only Stanley Herbert Elliott who was a civilian. 

[Old Bid]

Hi, the KSA is in fact QSA I misheard him when I was talking to him.

 sorry if this confused things. Also there is another medal in the group but until I see a picture cannot identify.

 

Regards

[Old Bid]

Hi, the qsa has five bars ww1 trio with 14/15 star 1902 coronation medal and the chile order of merit type two with blue enamel. So according to the list posted by foreign gong, they must belong to captain Oswald William Allan manning. Or has anyone got any other ideas ?

 

regards

[HarryBrook]

You will notice in my post #4 that Oswald William Allan Manning was born on 4 July 1895 so would have just about started going to school at the time of the 2nd Boer War 1899 - 1902! 

[Old Bid]

Hi, Any suggestions to who they may belong to then? No one else on the gazette list fits. Attached picture of medals.

 

Regards

[ForeignGong]

Hi

My data base only covers from 1900 to 1925. I have done some more research on this and Wikipedia states the following

 

"The Order of Merit (Spanish: Orden del Mérito) is a Chilean military order and was created in 1929. Succeeding the Medal of the Merit, which was created during the term of the President Germán Riesco through the Minister of War decree No. 1350 on September 4, 1906.

 

This new national distinction was created to recognise the meritorious service provided by foreign military personnel to Chilean officials.

 

The first 200 military medals were minted in gold and silver, giving them the title of First and Second Class. They were minted at the Casa de la Moneda, having a tricolor ribbon. The order had three classes: First Class, Second Class, and Third Class; but later a new class was added (Grand Officer) that would be awarded to heads of state."

 

As yours is silver and has the tricolour ribbon we can assume it was one of the first 200.

 

I checked the London Gazette from 1900 to 1939 and came up with these

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/notice?end-publish-date=1939-12-01&text="Al+Merito"&start-publish-date=1900-06-01&location-distance-1=1&service=all-notices&categorycode-all=all&numberOfLocationSearches=1&results-page-size=10

 

You may find your man here. Remember he would have to be approx 18 in 1900 to earn the QSA and 1902 Coro.

 

Good luck

Peter

 

[Old Bid]

Any idea why there is no KSA in this group? Also 1915 star instead of 1914 star. Possibly not in service for a few years?

 

regards

[Guest]

Hi, I have a unattributed miniature group that bears some resemblance to your group. It has the QSA, KSA, WW1 trio and the Chile Al Merito , third class. When I bought it I had good hope to identify the recipient, just by using the London Gazette announcements, but none of the people who were granted permission to wear this Chilean order were born before 1880.  The others were too young to serve in the Boer War. I am still looking for info.

[ForeignGong]

Hi nescionomen

See my second post above with the extra L G's, these are nearly all post WW1

[Guest]

Thanks for your help. I had already checked the LG for any recipients of the Chilean decoration. The only person I found who was old enough to have served both in the Boer War and in WWI is Stanley Herbert Elliott, born in 1877. Records show that he was an engineer who served in the military works department in South Africa from 1901- 1903.
In 1903 he was sent to Chile to work in a salt mine where he became manager of nitrate works.
Shipping records show that on 23 May 1914 he arrived in Liverpool with wife and children. At 5 August 1915 he returned to Chile. Could he have earned the WW1 trio, with 1914 Star and MID during this stay in Europe? I did not find any records of this.
He was awarded the Medalla Al Mérito, Second Class for rescuing two Chilean airmen who were forced to land in the desert, during the Ralley Santiago -Tacna – Santiago in 1924 February.
However the medal in my set seems to be that of the Third Class.