Naming of medals

[DirtyDick]

Hello

I have heard on a number of occasions that Boots, the Chemists, offered an 'official' service to those wishing to have their WW2 medals named after issue.

Anyone know the naming style, cost, how frequently this has been encountered (only seen a very few, often with just name and rank - dubious if a prestigious individual or unit), and whether they were in fact promoted by the Govt for this service or rather just dominated this field.

Am I right in thinking that only the Aussies and South Africans officially named their medals prior to issue, and that they tended to award 'gilt' (shinier) campaign stars than the other nations. (Have had SA groups with standard dull stars, but often see SA groups in particular having gilded stars, and a recent Aussie group certainly seemed to fit this bill.)

Cheers
Richard

P.S. If anyone likes reading very, very precise and bureaucratic directives governing the awards of WW2 stars and medals to solve any queries, follow this link to the NZDF website and click on Regulations for the respective award:

http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/medals/category/h/h9.html

[perce620]

Hello fellow great war fanatic
the Boots option was a privately done thing - will see if I have an example to scan for you-the South Africans, Aussies named their medals as did Indian units-Brit and Canadian unamed ( canadian medals are made of silver). I have a canadian group where the only named is the long service medal.
Do you still have the west yorks trio and what swaps are you after?
Cheers
Perce

[DirtyDick]

Cheers for the response, Perce. Yes, we GWF types seem to turn up like bad pennies.

The Trio is still available - I generally collect Hamps Reg and submariner WW1 medals, but it was an impulse ebay purchase.

Not really sure about what WW2 I want in exchange (just thought I'd ask pn the off-chance since it would save making two transactions), but named WW2 TEMs and Australian medals always go down well, Naval GVI LSGCs to subs/depot ships, ID'd WW2 unnamed submariner groups; equally EII infantry/navy CSMs etc, oh, and WW2 memorial scrolls. (Quite a wide variety, as you can see.)

If you're interested please PM/email with any swapsies.

Thanks again

Richard

[perce620]

I May be getting a GSM northern Ireland to a Navy bloke-have some singles to the hampshire regt-always getting stuff in will see what comes in-really quite interested though. Will see if we can do a deal

[DirtyDick]

Cheers, Perce, there's no rush.

Forgot to add that I am also interested in researched/researchable Canadian groups with award slip, boxes of issue etc.

[perce620]

Hello
Will keep my eyes out for you and hopefully find something we can do a trade on
Cheers
Perce