Will O'Brien Posted 27 September , 2003 Share Posted 27 September , 2003 Whilst browsing thru e-bay yesterday I noticed for sale what was described as a replica of the proposed & officially sanctioned by the Australian government but never issued Gallipoli Star. I will admit that I have never heard of it before. Does anyone know the background to this unissued medal & the reasons for not issueing it? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raster Scanning Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 In 1918, George V approved the design by R Peacock of Melbourne for a Gallipoli medal, called the Gallipoli Star. It was intended only for Australian and New Zealand soldiers. The award was not issued after strong British opposition. They felt it was unfair that the other Allied soldiers who far outnumbered the ANZAC contingent (both in numbers served and casualties), would be excluded. However in 1990, the medal was manufactured and presented to the remaining two hundred ANZAC's. There is a picture of of Alec Campbell's medals here including the Gallipoli Star. The yellow stripe represents the sand of Gallipoli. There was another Gallipoli Star, issued and manufactured by both the Turk's and Germans to commemorate their victory, it was a pin badge type and had no ribbon. Cheers. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Bowbrick Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 John, Were any of the Gallipoli Stars issued postumously to the relatives of veterans or was the issue restricted to living veterans? Cheeers - Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raster Scanning Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 Ian. As far as I am aware, just to the 200 or so living ones. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 28 September , 2003 Author Share Posted 28 September , 2003 John Many thanks for clarifying this for me. Personally never understood why the British (& associated Commonwealth Armies) never awarded medals for serving in the different theatres of war (as was done in WWII) or bars to the BWM Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 There were bars planned for the BWM - largely battle bars and theatre bars - and examples of them were produced. But they were not issued on grounds of cost, and the only ones to get them were the RN and that was in miniature, and mainly to officers judging by the types of groups that have turned up with them. Before you all see a flood of such full-size bars on ebay, masters were made and some tailors produced 'tailors copies' - occasionally these appear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 28 September , 2003 Author Share Posted 28 September , 2003 Thanks Paul - It makes me shake my head in disbelief. After bearing the majority of the finanical cost of fighting the most expensive war ever (up to that date) , the powers that be were worried by a little more expense in providing bars to the men who had fought & died in it. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Bowbrick Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 Thanks Paul - It makes me shake my head in disbelief. After bearing the majority of the finanical cost of fighting the most expensive war ever (up to that date) , the powers that be were worried by a little more expense in providing bars to the men who had fought & died in it. Will Well at least medals were engraved with name, rank & number unlike WW2! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 28 September , 2003 Author Share Posted 28 September , 2003 Well at least medals were engraved with name, rank & number unlike WW2! Thats fair comment Ian, I just feel the decision not to issue bars was the wrong one. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 Well at least medals were engraved with name, rank & number unlike WW2! Ian And at least there wasn't a 50+ year wait as is the case for the Suez Canal Zone Veterans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john w. Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 Too right Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 29 September , 2003 Share Posted 29 September , 2003 In the 1960s a Gallipoli Medallion was instigated which was available to all ANZAC Gallipoli veterans and could be claimed by next of kin where the combattant had died. There is a page about it on this site. http://www.anzacs.org/ Originally it was proposed to instigate clasps for the British War Medal - on Naval medals these would have been (for Mediterranean service) Mediterranean 1914 (etc. up to 1918).I believe that some were actualy to be seen on naval officers minatures but the clasps for the BWN were never manufactured. There was also to have been a Marmora S/M clasp for the elite band of submariners who served in the Sea of Marmora and the following for Gallipoli campaign service: Dardanelles - this was only for the March Operations Gallipoli Landing - this was only for the April Landings Gallipoli The Gallipoli clasp would have served for the Suvla landings. Although the naval proposals were made public the army proposals were not, but I can imaginine that some veterans might have needed vry long medal ribbons! Fuller details of the proposed Naval clasps can be found in H Taprell Dorling's "Medal and Ribbons". Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 29 September , 2003 Share Posted 29 September , 2003 Too right Lee John - My dad reckons the MOD & the government want to stall long enough in the hope that the Veterans will all die out, he's convinced he'll never see his medal. I do know that one MOD 'Desk Pilot' changed Lord Guthrie's suggestion of the minimum service to qualify for a medal from 30 days to 90 days, needless to say that this was reversed when it was spotted in the paperwork! However, on a good note, I have heard that the MOD medal offices are taking on more staff and there are hints that some medals (probably for very senior officers ) will be out by November 11th this year! But it is not set in concrete yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Bowbrick Posted 29 September , 2003 Share Posted 29 September , 2003 Although the naval proposals were made public the army proposals were not................ Martin Martin, The actual bars were never made public but the number quoted by my colleagues who are ex-MOD was around 60. There 'may' have been a proposal to limit the number of bars that any one veteran could wear, similar to the number of camapign stars that any one WW2 veteran was entitled to, which was 6. But this is all academic now. One proposal 'may' have been to limit bars to those Battles only present on the Regimental's colours. Who knows! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 5 October , 2003 Share Posted 5 October , 2003 Geoffrey Moorhouse writing in his book "Hell's Foundations - A town, its myths & Gallipoli" mentions that "When the Great War was over, plans were afoot to issue a campaign medal to every man who had fought in the Dardanelles: the plans got as far as the production of a ribbon, which combined dark blue for the Navy, red for the Army, yellow for the Australians (the colour of their wattle) and grey-green to symbolise the fern leaf of the New Zealanders. But neither the Gallipoli medal nor the ribbon were ever issued, because George V forbade them. 'We do not,' he is reported to have said, 'issue medals for retreats.'" If true, then this is a little hard to swallow bearing in mind that certain others collected sundry portions of the alphabet for their part in these same proceedings, retreat or no retreat. Well done Australia and New Zealand - better late than never! Regards (from the left) Michael D.R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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