World War 1

Hello:

My wife's grandfather served in the CEF in Europe from 1916 until 1919. He was originally from Toronto. After the war he received his War Medal and Victory Medal. However, over the years they were lost. I know unnamed original War and Victory Medals are very hard to find but I am wondering if anyone could steer me to a military collector or collectors for me to contact? I have already been in touch with Tanya Ursual, the owner of Medals of War.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Mark

Welcome to the forum Mark. If you post his name and details, it may help in searching out the medals. It is a long shot, very long in fact, but they could be out in the public domain somewhere. Many collectors have medals tucked away in their collections that others do not know about.

Another site I recommend you join and place your request with is the British Medals forum, link follows;

http://www.britishmedalforum.com/

If you are looking for new replacements there are many online vendors. I found this site after a quick google search. Hope this helps.

Ypres

http://www.monstermedals.com/full-size-ww1-replacement-medals-24-c.asp

PS. You may also want to try veterans affairs. My family misplaced a NWMP long service medal and we were sent a replacement. We had to pay, but it was worth it. If anyone has the original medal "William Armer #1974", the family would appreciate its return ....

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/help/faq/medals-decorations#replace

Hello:

Thanks for the replies and information. In regards to the reply from pylon1357 here are the details on my wife's grandfather:


Alan Kenneth Magner
Reg # 527840


Thanks again!


Mark

Mark, I looked about my usual spots and came up empty.

Personally I would use good quality copies. There are plenty of erased medals out there, but I dislike these immensely. An erased medal is an original medal named to someone that has been defaced. The market fr these has grown lately which is quite disturbing. I can not believe people think it is acceptable to erase the naming of someones medals. To me it is disgraceful to erase an mans history. Nothing is more frustrating to a collector than to be searching for years for medals that my have been erased and thus lost to history.

I believe that back in the 1980s VAC held a stock of FWW medals as replacements, medals that for whatever reason had not been claimed by the original recipient. In providing a replacement, the original name would be erased and replaced with the new details of the person it was replacing.

Hello:

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I do agree that erasing someone's name off of a medal and selling it as unnamed is disgraceful. It totally disrespects that person and their sacrifices and contributions. I know the market is out there, but I will not have anything to do with it.

I am wondering if anyone knows of reputable collector forums or collectors in the US? The reason I ask is that the backstory is that after the war, he finished seminary at Princeton University in New Jersey. He subsequently moved to Milroy, Pennsylvania as a pastor of a church there . According to his military records, the 2 medals were shipped to him on February 17th,1922. In 1923 he and his family moved to Pennington, New Jersey where he was a pastor until he retired and lived there until he passed away in 1973. His daughter(my mother in law) is still alive and thinks they were probably lost in the move as she never saw them and she has a very sharp memory; even at age 94! Fortunately, she gave us his Military Medal For Bravery which he was awarded for his actions under fire at the Battle of Passchendaele on November 6th,1917. This has been framed and is in our living room(This is probably more info than you're interested in)

Also, I have heard that there are original unnamed medals out there that were manufactured but never given out...possibly overproduction?

Oh well, this is all an extreme longshot, but it is nice to know there are other folks out there with the same interest in preserving pieces of history.

Best regards,

Mark