Medal News

NEWS that the Lord Ashcroft Collection of Victoria Crosses and George Crosses is to find a new home at the National Army Museum (NAM) has been met with much relief in the medal collecting community. Whilst the Collection’s previous home in the eponymous Gallery at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, there was no appetite to see the Collection go into storage for the foreseeable future. The decision by the IWM to close the Gallery in 2025 after 15 years came as something of a shock to collectors, not least to Lord Ashcroft himself, and whilst there was a small reprieve (it had been due to close on June 1 but stayed open until September), there seemed little hope that the Collection would ever be in one…

THE LORD ASHCROFT COLLECTION— some good news It has recently been announced by Lord Ashcroft’s office that his superb Collection of over 250 Victoria Crosses and George Crosses will soon be available for the public to view once again, after an arrangement was made with the National Army Museum (NAM) in Chelsea. The Collection, the biggest of its kind in the world, had been housed in the purpose-built Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum until a rather startling decision was made by them last year to close the space in favour of other exhibitions. It had been feared that the Victoria Crosses and George Crosses, along with a host of related material that had made the Gallery such a unique experience, would have to go into long-term storage…

AFTER a bumper end to 2025 (see “Auction Highlights” March 2026), the new year started a little quieter with only Noonans in action in January. They were back again in February and were joined in London that month by Stanley Gibbons Baldwins. Elsewhere, both Warwick& Warwick and C&T held sales in February; these are covered in News & Views on page 8. Noonans first offering of the year took place on January 14 when 799 lots were presented, of which the vast majority were medal specific. Rather impressively, the auction saw a “sell through” rate of 99.5 per cent, quite something. The sale started with 100 lots that made up the second part of “A Collection of Medals to the Royal Army Pay Corps” with most selling neatly within estimate.…

  Each month the National Army Museum shares some of their treasures with us. This month, MEL O’BRIEN-PRICE, the Museum’s Curator of Equipment and Uniform, shares the background of the Battle of Vinegar Hill and the Sligo Militia. Sligo Militia Rebellion of 1798 THIS medal was issued in 1798 by the Right Honourable Henry King, who served as Colonel of the Sligo Militia from 1793 to 1800. Rich in symbolism, the medal reflects both Irish identity and loyalty to the Crown. On the obverse appears a female figure with a harp surmounted by a crown, encircled by the inscription “SLIGO MILITIA.” The reverse bears the words “REWARD OF MERIT” within a ribbon cartouche at its centre, surrounded by the inscription “BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE COL KING.” Some surviving examples are…

JIM CARLISLE Part 1 FOUNDED as the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1624, what is now New York was taken over by the British in 1664. Possession was confirmed in 1667 by the terms of the Treaty of Breda in which the British relinquished control of Surinam in South America and the island of Run in what would become known as the Dutch East Indies. Already a prospering colony under the Dutch, the renamed New York continued its development into a world leader of commerce and trade. Growth included the development of a military that protected the colony and later served with distinction during the Revolution. Two of the pivotal events of the Revolution that took place in New York were the Battle of Saratoga in which the defeat…

NUMBER 3 Veterinary Hospital was based just outside Boulogne and was under the command of Captain J. R. Hodgkins. Captain Hodgkins remained in command of Number 3 Hospital until July 15, 1919, when he recorded in the War Diary, "... this closes the war diary of Number 3 Veterinary Hospital." Unit Information: JOHN ROWLAND HODGKINS, DSO, FRCVS John Rowland Hodgkins was born in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on September 29, 1881. He graduated from the Royal College in London in July 1904 and was appointed Lieutenant in the Veterinary Corps in August 1905. Initially appointed to the Veterinary Hospital in Aldershot, Lieutenant Hodgkins served in India from 1905 to 1912. While serving in India, he was appointed Captain and completed his work to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary…