Perception of Medals
Pontius - your observation on what fathers did with medals could not be truer, and caused me to think about this (and shed a small tear). My father's father was an ANZAC in WWI, died when dad was very young. My father appeared to have little interest in his father's career and when his mother died, he let his mad sister sell off the collection of campaign medals and Discharge certificate for a few NZ dollars in a pawn brokers.
I was a young teenager at the time and was disappointed that the memorabilia was lost to the family. My father, who had been invalidated out of the Army due to an nasty accident in the Western Desert, never bothered to collect his service medals; indeed didn't talk about the war at all. The family always felt a bit cheated - there were two male role models in the family who had given so much (Grandfather died from the effect of injuries sustained in France; dad lost an eye and suffered from related injuries and died prematurely young, in part due to his war service), and we had nothing tangible to recall a formative part of their all-too-short lives.
In contrast, my son (6 1/2) is incredibly proud of my service and my modest collection of campaign medals, including the QGJM(!). Indeed, I had to gently stop him from wearing my minatures to school on National Book Day, when he dressed (by his own volition) as 'Braddock VC' from my 1969 Eagle Annual. I do not glamourise my unremarkable time in the Service (indeed, I am critical of many defence related issues), but I would never do anything that would deter his obvious pride. In due course, my collection of bits and bobs will go to him (along with a recently-issued set of my dad's uncollected campaign medals) and provide a reminder of the role of our family in the Services.
Sorry, a bit sentimental, but if I had received a Veterens medal, I doubt that I would have worn it, but in time my children would look at such a small momento with a pride that we feel uncomfortable displaying ourselves.
CC
Last edited by Cambridge Crash; 7th May 2005 at 06:54.