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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Engraving medals


matthew_family_research

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I know this is about WW2 medals, but I thought it might be of interest to some WW1 researchers.

I'm thinking about having my grandfather's WW2 medals engraved, to make them 'his' for posterity.

Does anyone have any views about how to do this 'correctly'. Maybe I should copy the WW1 format? Or maybe there's a usual (other) way to do it?

And would a trophy engraver be the best place to take them?

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Guest Ian Bowbrick

Number, rank (when he first went overseas) & regiment is the standard norm. A trophy engraver is good enough provided they use the correct font.

Ian

:)

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Hi, thanks for getting back.

When you say 'when he first went overseas', what do you mean? Why in brackets?

And finally, when you say 'Times Roman' do you mean that, or Times New Roman?!

Sorry to be pernickety!

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Guest Ian Bowbrick

Medals are inscribed with the rank you have when you first enter the 'qualifying' zone. In the case of the BWM & Victory it was the rank you had on 1 January 1916 or rank on entry thereafter. Therefore this is why you can see WW1 Trios with the star having a different rank to the pair.

Yes I did mean Times New Roman

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Greetings Pals. In the Aug.,1983 issue of Coin & Medal News, Tony Sudlow did a column on naming WW2 medals, and he had some interesting ideas. Departing from the WW1 format, he suggested, for example a group consisting of 39-45 Africa, Italy Star,etc. was named a.39-45 Star to F/O N.E.C.Dear,RAFVR; b. Africa Star to Sgt.Pilot 152 Sqn; c. Italy Star to F/Sgt Pilot 152 Sqn; and so on, with the highest rank attained on the 39-45 Star.

He mentioned that purists would scream to high heavens, but it was an interesting argument.

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Boots the Chemist offered a medal naming service for WW2 medals in the 1950s. If you wrote to Boots they might be able to shed light on what fonts and info were engraved on the medals. I have seen examples of these and they tend to be capital letters only, and not Times New Roman. I'm not an expert on fonts to say what it is, however! They have all shown: Number, Rank, Initials, Surname and Regiment/Unit.

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