Red Hackle

[macwilkin]

You are quite right Todd. I have been amazed in the past that there wasn't more damage. But you can't fight tradition. The men of WWII, Korea, The Radfan, The Middle East and all the way up to The Troubles would not consider having their medals mounted any way other than swing.

One of the reasons for this is that the medal bar was an issue item and the serviceman was expected to be able to swing mount his own medals. Court mounting meant that they had to be sent off and the serviceman would have to pay someone else to do it. A waste of good beer money!

When I received my second medal in 1977, official policy was that the medals should be swing mounted, but the corresponding miniatures should be court mounted.

There is a school of thought that some styles of medal do not lend themselves to court mounting. All the various crosses come to mind and the French Légion d'honneur, which was designed to show the colour of the uniform through the medal pendant. I do not know the Rhodesian medals, but I can imagine that there might be difficulties.

Regards

Chas

Indeed, Chas. Spot on about the ex-squaddies and their beer money.

US Army medals are also "swing mounted", although I know a few ex-servicemen over here who have sent their medals to Canada to be court-mounted.

T.