This is the medal that was given to members of the Boy’s Brigade and Boy Scouts who lined the procession route for the Veterans’ Parade in Nottingham during the Coronation celebrations. The Scouts were, at that time, a new organisation compared to the Boy’s Brigade. The medal features two stags with very flat antlers. They have to be flat to allow room for all the wording.
I presume Mrs J A Morrison was the wife of J A Morrison DSO, who was MP for East Nottingham between 1908 and 1912, and was host of the dinner.
There is a book which lists the names of the war veterans who went to the dinner, which was held at the Empress Rink, King Edward Street, Nottingham. The skating rink is reported as burning down in 1910 and being rebuilt as a cinema, which opened in January 1913 so I’m not sure how it hosted the dinner in June 1911.
There were 1,600 veterans, with 2,475 medals between them. The oldest veteran was 90-year-old E Pratt of the 17th Foot, who lost eight toes to frostbite in the Crimea.
Each veteran was given a copy of the book as a souvenir, with Stewards being given silver jewels (which I have seen, though never been able to photograph), and Captain Morrison, as he was then, being given a gold and enamel jewel.
Edit: This is a link to the catalogue archive of auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb showing a picture of a silver stewards jewel.
The old medals are interesting to look at.
Yes, and they cover a wide variety of events.
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Mr Pratt of the 17th Foot was so unfortunate. Ive tried not to smile.
Yes, though with only two toes, his christening seems to have been only the start of his misfortune…
A lot of veterans and a lot of medals.
I imagine there was also a lot of dinner…
Yeesh. George V comes in a few years before WWI; VI just in time for WWII. Those stags DO look a bit funny.
Yes, their timing was not great. As for the stags – I just keep staring at them. They look like they have just washed their antlers and can’t do a thing with them…
lol.
Very interesting read.
Thank you. 🙂
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