Named Medals ....when and how?

[Jay Oen]

I'm interested in finding some medals and have been looking at some dealer sites and of course ebay.

I see some are named and others unnamed. My question is were the medals engraved (named) when issued by the government, or did the recipiant have them done after they were recieved?

Thanks,

JAY

I'm interested in anything from the 2/19th London regiment in which my Great Grandfather served. Here's what I know about him.

613882 Pte Harold George JESSEMEY

Corps Regiment No Rank

London Regiment 613882 Private

"formerly 35795 Pte KRRC" (Kings Royal Rifle Corps)

Died of Wounds 10/12/17 at Jerusalem

buried: Jerusalem War Cem

born: Walthamstow, Essex

enlisted: Walthamstow, Essex

resided: Walthamstow , Essex

served overseas:

Salonika 30 March 1917 to 9 June 1917 (temporarily attached 9th Entrenching Battalion 3 to 7

April 1917)

Palestine 12 June 1917 to 10 Dec 1917

The 2/19 , 60th Division

[DirtyDick]

British & Empire (Commonwealth) WW1 Campaign medals were officially named.

The same is true of virtually all British campaign and service medals from their inception to this day, save for British-issued WW2 campaign medals, which were not named in order to save on time and money, since GB had long since been sucked dry of cash by Uncle Sam! OO-ER. (Although Australian, South African and Indian recipients of British WW2 campaign medals had them named by their own governments.)

Richard

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

The actual term is 'officially impressed'. Some earlier campaign medals such as the Crimea medal can have a variety of naming including being engraved or depot style/regimental impressing. All add or detract to the medal's value.

Ian

[Jay Oen]

Thanks Richard and Ian............

BUT, if all WW1 medals were 'officially impressed' or Named, what are all the unnamed medals I see for sale?!?? Copys? Fakes?

I want to make sure I get a "real" one when I buy.

Thanks,

JAY

[DirtyDick]

There are real, unnamed medals available for sale. Many millions of such medals were produced and despatched not only to UK servicemen but also those of the then Empire. The various governments held onto blank surplus medals to accommodate late requests for medals (in the case of officers) and official replacement issues.

The surplus of blank South African awards have made it onto the market over the last few years, and a number have been named fraudulently to actual soldiers in prestigious units: a real medal and real information taken from service papers in their archives, and often impressed correctly, equals very good forgery. (Similarly, the New Zealand Govt. sold off a load of WW2 campaign Stars it held in stock, only to have to make some new ones to allow for late claims: since all were unnamed, they are no different to original issues.)

There are also later copies of these awards for sale by military outfitters etc., some marked as a copy, others discernable by their differences to the originals, and others being sold as originals (either named or unnamed).

Fortunately, there are millions of originals in circulation and most can be bought for about a tenner (especially to a corps or the RN).

Richard