Distinguished career of a Naval flyer

Original is best RECENTLY Louise (MEDAL NEWS Deputy Editor and also my wife!) and I took a trip to Scotland and managed to include a visit to Edinburgh Castle; last time we were in the city we hadn’t realised the need to book tickets in advance so missed out but this time around we went prepared! As it was a Sunday the 1.00pm gun wasn’t fired and as it was midsummer it was, quite naturally for Edinburgh, blowing a gale and alternately raining on us, then the sun would come out to roast us, so the walk around the walls was, understandably, undertaken at some speed. This left the interior of the castle to explore but we actually managed to miss out most of that, preferring instead to visit the military museums nestled within the castle grounds. For those of you unfamiliar with the castle there are four such museums to be found there—the National War Museum Scotland, the Royal Scots Museum, the Royal Regiment of Scotland Museum and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum. They are exactly as one might expect them to be, with a mixture of uniforms, weapons, pictures and of course, medals. There’s also, in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum, the Eagle and standard taken from the 45th French Infantry by Charles Ewart during the Scots Greys charge at Waterloo, that’s well worth seeing in itself! The museums, presumably each with an individual curator, take a similar but different approach to their displays, in particular the medals (although it’s perfectly possible all their displays differ, I will confess to concentrating mainly on the medals as one might expect) and I found myself comparing and contrasting how they’d set about their task. In some instances, the medals featured were accompanied by portraits, original documents, boxes, a uniform or two and they were treated as part of the display rather than the focal point; in other cases (if you’ll excuse the pun) the medals were the main draw and were left to tell their own story, without any other distractions. I’m not sure which type of display I liked more, having a glass case filled with “other bits” does detract from the medals a little if you are a purist but conversely just a group of medals on its own doesn’t necessarily give the general visitor the full picture of the recipient, so I am in two minds on which approach I prefer. What I’m not in two minds about though is modern versus original (and in some cases very tatty) ribbons. Now I know that no soldier, particularly a senior officer of the kind of rank whose medals you find on display in these museums, would ever allow his ribbons to fray or his medals to tarnish but there is definitely something about a group that looks old that really appeals, at least to me. I won’t name names but at least one of the museums has made a point of discarding many of the original ribbons in favour of crisp modern versions, and they’d cleaned, possibly lacquered the medals too. I know why they did it, the rows upon rows of pristine and polished awards are as one might expect to see on parade today, the battered and tattered versions seen elsewhere simply wouldn’t be acceptable no matter what the rank of the wearer, but modern ribbons on old awards, (and remember even World War II medals are 80 years old now) somehow jar with me and I would, I think, much rather see an original ribbon no matter what its condition. But does it matter? Let’s be honest the ribbon is not the important thing here, having a modern ribbon in no way detracts from the medal itself, it is surely just an aesthetic thing? Well yes, but a museum is all about aesthetics, a display has to be visually appealing and for me a group that shows its age has more appeal than one that looks like it was awarded yesterday. I realise I may be in a minority here, realise that many collectors like their medals, and ribbons, to be parade ready and many of you will make a point of discarding older ribbons the moment they start to get a little frayed but for me original is best, I think. What are your thoughts? On another note, I was amused to see an example of the “Dartmoor Medal” with six clasps in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum. Apparently, it was issued to commemorate the terrible weather during the 1873 autumn manoeuvres on the Moor. When a Scots regiment issues a medal to commemorate bad weather, you know it must have been awful!