A Chance Find Reveals

Extra, Extra LAST month, I mentioned my trip to the military museums in Edinburgh Castle and how I preferred looking at groups with original—rather than newer, neater—ribbons; even though I knew that no soldier (particularly of a high rank) would ever wear tarnished medals on frayed ribbons, the look of freshly polished awards with crisp new ribbons somehow jarred. It seems that many of you feel the same way, preferring an older look to your museum displays although, rather interestingly, a number of you also pointed out that whilst you liked that look in a case, when it came to your own medals in your collections you were keen to replace worn ribbons as soon as possible. Although, to be fair, those who did say that also said that they tried to source original ribbon (or as near to it) wherever they could. The biggest bugbear seemed to be the double rainbow watered silk of the World War I Victory Medal with modern versions rarely making the grade. One reader, who asked to remain anonymous, didn’t mention ribbons in his email at all, but rather he was interested in the other point I made—that of medals being included as a wider display versus being on their own with no ephemera around them. I confessed to not paying much attention to the other items in the cases, concentrating instead only on the medals. I am, after all, the editor of MEDAL NEWS, not Ephemera Monthly! I was, however, told in no uncertain terms, that I was missing out and by ignoring the letters, the diaries, the uniforms, the swords, the personal knickknacks, etc, I was, in effect, only learning half the recipient’s story. And I think that reader may have a point. I have never really been one to collect militaria (as many of the extras would surely be classed), probably because I started off collecting World War I medals and, because of budgetary constraints, most of those were awarded to enlisted men not officers and, with the best will in the world, the “extras” that came with them were never that exciting. If Trench Art isn’t your thing then one shell casing money box is much like another, and if the writer wasn’t a member of your family then a personal diary or letters home don’t really mean much to you (especially as so many of them were very similar, tales of boredom, hunger, sickness, cold and rain interspersed with moments of sheer terror and sad tidings of comrades that didn’t make it back). There was also the issue of space—medals are easy to store; uniforms, photograph albums, diaries, even weapons, less so. This being the case, I’d invariably choose the simple trio or pair unencumbered by anything more. A photograph of the recipient is always nice but whole albums become a problem. The money factor also came into play; why pay more for the “bits” when I can put that cash towards more medals? When I started collecting Chaplains’ medals, the extras became a little more important and there were more photographs, a signed bible or prayer book and so on but, again, I didn’t seek out such things. To me, the important thing was always the medals, but here’s the thing: many of us, if not most of us, collect medals because of who they were awarded to, whether because of their home town, their regiment, their surname or whatever. In other words, it is the man behind the medal as much as anything else that is the important thing, and yet a diary or letters will tell us more about that man than medals ever will but they are never seen as quite as important, and not that important at all if they come on their own with no medals alongside them. Am I, therefore, no more than a magpie, collecting only the shiny things? Why, I wonder, am I only interested in the physical medals rather than anything else? If I am, as I profess to be, interested in Exeter recipients then why aren’t I out there at postcard fairs looking for photos or trawling auctions looking for letters or other ephemera to men from my city? The reader who admonished me for not paying attention to the extras told me I’d been missing out and that his collections featured everything he could lay his hands on that related to his theme; looking at it logically, I think he’s right and I will, I think, view things a little differently from now on and start looking to add other bits and pieces, not just medals, to what I have. Now all I have to do is convince my wife it’s a good idea! Wish me luck.