Great War Canadian Nurses' Belt Buckle

I'm onto another project. As a part of my Great War commemorative project I need to reproduce a Canadian nurses' buckle. So to begin I need a buckle, and a friend in the reenactment community has gracious talent me hers. 

The central circle is 1 3/4" while the belt straps are 1 1/2". 

Here's the back.

And here it is disassembled.

I'm not a metallurgist but I presume it's brass. The gold look is gilt and the lion and crown is silver plate that has subsequently been painted silver. The brass beneath is showing through. If I'm wrong on any of this please tell me someone!

This is an ongoing project that will end up with a reproduction. I'll be doing leather work too. If anyone wants one of these please contact me. They will be for sale. The process of this reproduction will be updated.

It may be that I will have to cast the silver plated centre as part of the whole and silver it with silver leaf. That would be a pity as I'd like to make a solid casting of the lion and crown. I have a jeweller friend to help me but I can't see how we can un-pean the rivet stems that hold the centre to its backing. The process that will be followed, essentially, will be to make a silicon mould from which multiple wax forms can be made. These will then be placed in a mould material and removed, once the mould is set, by melting them out. It's called the "lost wax" process. Into the void the liquid brass will be poured and the cast reproduction created. The mould, finally, gets broken to get out the new buckle, but new wax forms can be made indefinitely. Line up folks! .....This will be the new fashion accessory, and just wait until you see the leather.

As I look at this I reflect that I'll be reproducing a worn buckle, not a new one. As such it would be equally appropriate if my silver leaf work only settles securely in the depressions. Used and worn belts were the norm. And as for the silver paint when was that done? Could it be 100 years old too?

Boer War Stetson

A friend of mine who is a dealer has a Canadian Stetson from the Boer War for sale. With it comes a set of four photos of members from the platoon of the original owner. Their names are written on the underside of the hat.

The hat is slightly moth-eaten but the brim is spectacularly flat and stiff. 

The original owner is second from the left.

Anyone interested in this should contact Russell Cassidy at   russell.cassidy@sympatico.ca

The price for the set could be $1,100.00 depending on the final asking price of the current owner.

And while you're on this page don't forget the world of reproductions. What Price Glory of California has many Boer War reproductions. Match this belt to tho Oliver Pattern belts being worn in the first photo.

And here's the famous Oliver Pattern water bottle that was smashed on landing in South Africa now soon to be released by WPG 

The original is on the right

Just out is the Lee Metford frog:

Infact all the Oliver Pattern equipment is available, or will be in a month.

      http://onlinemilitaria.net/shopaff.asp?affid=1497                     

Great War Artifacts: Photographs....Remembering

Much as my grandfather's photos seem to have a self assured bravado about them the war was close and real, and he saw his share of deaths. Reginald Parrott, or "Polly" as he was known, was killed when a German shell caved in the parapet during a counter attack. Here's Polly behind my grandfather in November 1915, and here is his grave four months later.

In 1922 my grandfather returned to the grave at the Kemmel Chateau Cemetery.

My son stands by the grave in 2008.

In 1922 my grandfather was returning to Smyrna with his father and his cousin Louise. He had finished his degree in engineering at Queen's University after the war and was going to the family home in Asia Minor where his father ran an international college.

They took a ship to England and then did a detour to visit my grandfather's battle sites. My great grandfather gave a book to his son inscribed as a reminder of their good trip together.

Looking at the photos one sees something of that gulf between those who fought and those who did not. Great grandfather looks on with an academic interest, Louise, as was her spirit, seems to ham it up. My grandfather stands by land marks which to him represent critical moments in the Battle of Sanctuary Wood. 

The culvert is repaired now but what torment of shells might have ripped it apart and shattered the tree? Was this a place of refuge as PPCLI held off the German advance? I don't know.

Louise is lucky she didn't blow them all to bits.

And in these next photos displaying the aftermath of destruction what would be the different thoughts in the minds of these three visitors?

The Lille gate is pitted but quiet. The Cloth Hall in Ypres is in ruins but no shells will fall. And now the barbed wire is being stacked in mountains, no longer laid out to snag cloth and flesh.

The Michelin guide book provides a driving tour for the curious, but there is no tour through the minds of those who were there. 

This scene looks like it's of a fresh planting in no-man's-land in 1922. Compare this to the photo my grandfather took of the view across to Fritz's line just a few years before in 1916. And on just such a day as this the German shell blew apart the parapet and "Polly" Parrott died.

My grandfather went on to Smyrna where he first met my grandmother. They survived the destruction and burning of the city by the Turks and ended up in Canada. Her letters are a whole other story, as is the tale of how my great grandfather was spared from a firing squad by the skin of his teeth. Louise married a White Russian emigre/refugee and ended up in the States.

To end here is a photo of my grand parents, backs to the camera, in the market place in Ypres in 1965. I'll make a visit for them all in the next couple of years, and I'll be sure Parrot is not forgotten.

As a last note here's my grandfather again, in the British army in Salonica, 1917, next to a photo of my son in a school movie project in 2012.

They were born 100 years apart.

Great War Artifacts: Photographs

My grandfather had a camera in the trenches which he wasn't supposed to have. Family lore has it that it saved his life when it stopped a bullet. Be that as it may he took a lot a photos. Here's a selection, though the first is the studio portrait I've shown before.

I've always been haunted by the youth of these men in these photos. My grandfather is certainly not the old man I remember.

There's an air of bravado in so many of the photos, and the captions make light of the reality.

Some how this last photo cuts through the cocky assurance of the others. It seems to be a double exposure and I wonder if someone picked up the camera and snapped my grandfather unprepared. He seems vulnerable tucked into the tight space in the ground surrounded by gear.