Bulgar? metal plate....

[SimonM]

Dear All (especially Nikolay!),

Here at the National Army Museum I am cataloguing some material collected by a 12th Corps signal officer in Salonika (coals to Newcastle, rather!). This item appears to be in Cyrillic and is made of white metal, with a punched inscription. Is it Bulgarian? The dimensions are 8cm wide by 4cm.

Thanks,

Simon Moody

[Nikolay]

Hi, Simon

This is a Bulgarian army identification plate. According to the inscription, its holder was private Petko Vyrbanov (here -y- is pronounced the same way as -u- in "but"), serving in the 1st Company of the 4th Pleven Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division. He came from village of Tuchenitza, Pleven region and according to the last row he was from "draft of 1905" which means that he was born in 1884 or 1885 and was called from the reservs to serve in the Great war. Hope this helps

Best regards

Nikolay

[SimonM]

Thanks Nikolay!

That is brilliant. I thought that is what it might be. The 1905 bit did confuse me but I suppose the Bulgarian Army used a similar system to other using the annual or biannual draft, both conscripts and reservists. It is useful that so much ifo was recorded on the tag - was it home made or issued by his unit I wonder?

Capt Hanby-Holmes picked up a few manuals and this item from the dugouts vacated by the 9th (Pleven) Div in Sept 1918. He must have wandered about, like so many other bumused British soldeirs who did not know what was going on to the west and expected another hard fight from the brave men of the 9th Div.

It would be nice to know what happened to Petko.

Many thanks again, I owe you one.

Simon Moody

[Nikolay]

Thanks Nikolay!

Many thanks again, I owe you one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How about a glass of "Guiness" at the Irish pub on Gloucester Road in London or at the one which is on Queens'way and Bayswater? They had a pretty barmaid last time I visited London - some 5 years ago...

To be honest I am inclined to think that the item was rather maid by Petko himself - usually soldiers were issued small paper cards (which contained their names, regiment, company and year of draft (in Bulgarian "nabor")), which they had to sew in their uniform on the upper left inner side of their coats. Metal plates were not issued often and the poor guy most probably did on its own with these uneven row letters... I think he is probably one of about 110 000 Bulgarian servicemen who died in that war- it is difficult to believe he would left this piece behind on its own will. "Nabor 1905" means that Vyrbanov had most probably served his military service between 1906 and 1908.

[SimonM]

Nikolay,

Let me know when you next come over...Gloucester Road is just round the corner. I am sure Alan would also like to meet you.

Regards

Simon Moody

[SimonM]

Cool. I wonder if it was aquired by a Franch soldier. Perhaps Nikolay can help?

Many thanks

Simon Moody

[Nikolay]

It is a nametag of a Serbian, not a Bulgarian solgier. It must have belonged to Borisav Chirich from the village of Medoshevac in Nish district - this is encrypted there in the Serbian version of Cyrillic. And also in the middle you can see a stylized version of the Serbian coat-of-arms - double-head eagle. I have absolutely no idea why it was presented as a Bulgarian. The difference must have been obvious to anyone with at least basic knowledge in Cyrillic, and in those days quite a number of Frenchmen serving in Salonika had that knowledge.

Best wishes