need help with id

[RICHARD1959]

[mancpal]

This is just a thought but when did the "great War" first get referred to as "World War"?

Simon

Edited 16 December , 2021 by mancpal
missed a bit

[RICHARD1959]

i agree its odd, but what war was in palestine, salonika and egypt? on the germans calleed wwi as world war, welt kreig. i dunknow

[RICHARD1959]

the horse shoe looks irish?

[jay dubaya]

1 hour ago, mancpal said:

This is just a thought but when did the "great War" first get referred to as "World War"?

Weltkrieg - World War appeared in Germany during 1914 whilst the French and British referred to La Grande Geurre or Great War.

1 hour ago, RICHARD1959 said:

the horse shoe looks irish?

I’m more inclined to say Arab over Irish. This central emblem appears to have been added as a piece rather than chased. A nice unusual box cover that I may suggest was procured with the emblem and then later embellished with an individual’s ‘tour’ - maybe he was of German decent.

[Fromelles]

Likely a British souvenir match box cover listing a serviceman's war service against the Turks (Palestine and Egypt) and Bulgarians (Salonika).

With 'Egypt' being listed last, possibly purchased there. 

You could research what units were present in all three theatres, but that's as far as I feel you could go with identifying who this may have belong to.

I think the horseshoe would be a symbol of good-luck rather than anything to do with a particular unit affiliation, but you never know...

Dan

[Mickster]

The horse shoe may refer to Mounted troops. It looks Arabian.

Im assuming that is a whip wound round it.

That too looks Arabic or Turkish

Mickster

[FROGSMILE]

I too think that it’s yet another Turkish match box cover.  The Ottoman Turks were allied with the Germans and so used the German style description for the conflict of “World War”.  Turkey was occupied immediately after the end of the war (as in Germany) and also sent another occupying force subsequently, in the early 1920s, to deal with the “Turkish Revolt” that subsequently led to Kemal Attaturk’s assumption of overall power in the rump that Turkey became after the fall of its erstwhile Ottoman Empire.  To make money from British occupying troops local craftsmen used old shell casings to make souvenirs such as matchbox covers, inscribed of course in English, to sell to British soldiers in the many bazaars that were usual in native towns and villages.

NB.  It should be borne in mind that the Ottomans included Arabs and other tribal and ethnic groups as a part of their military forces and so there were many different cultural influences in Ottoman art such as that seen inscribed on the matchbox.

Edited 31 December , 2021 by FROGSMILE