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The British War Medal
1914-1920 Authorised in 1919, was awarded
to eligible service personnel and civilians
alike. Qualification for the award varied
slightly according to service. The basic
requirement for army personnel and civilians
was that they either entered a theatre of
war, or rendered approved service overseas
between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918.
Service in Russia in 1919 and 1920 also
qualified for the award.
6,610,000 were issued.
The combination of a Star, Victory Medal and War Medal was fairly
commonplace (more than 2.5m trios were issued). This combination earned
for itself the nickname, "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" from the characters
that appeared in a comic strip which first appeared in the "DAILY
MIRROR" newspaper on the 12th of May 1919, about the same time as the
medals were being issued.
The British War Medal was nicknamed "SQUEAK". The medal is
worth between £15 - £20 for the 'silver' and between £75 - £100 for the
rarer 'bronze' medal (110,000) issued to Chinese, Indian and Maltese
labour battalions.
The British Medal and Victory Medal pair are more commonplace (3.2
million pairs were issued) as more men and women served in the Army
after 1st January 1916. The pair was often called "Mutt and Jeff" after
the popular cartoon characters originally from the San Francisco
Chronicle. |