Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 37:
Description
WWII British Campaign Stars, War Medal & RE/RAMC Cap Badges Plus Buttons. An unnamed group of three 1939-1945 Stars and a 1939-1945 War Medal, together with Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps cap badges, an Empire Day medalet, and a quantity of British military and livery buttons. This assembled lot brings together the standard suite of British and Commonwealth Second World War campaign awards alongside a broader collection of branch insignia and dress buttons. The medals as issued from the Royal Mint were left unnamed to the vast majority of recipients, and no citation, service record, or attributable recipient accompanies this material; the interest here lies in the range of badges and buttons rather than any single documented action. The 1939-1945 Star recognized qualifying periods of operational service in the various theatres of the war, while the War Medal 1939-1945 was awarded for a minimum of 28 days’ full-time service between September 1939 and September 1945 across the armed forces. The Royal Engineers badge, bearing the King George VI cypher within a crowned laurel wreath, and the Royal Army Medical Corps badge, with its central serpent-and-staff device set within an eight-pointed star, point toward the technical and support branches whose sappers and medical personnel served in every theatre of the conflict. The small Empire Day (24 May) medalet reflects an earlier, Edwardian-era civic tradition of marking the annual celebration of the British Empire, and its inclusion here broadens the lot’s scope beyond the war years proper. The three bronze 1939-1945 Stars retain their characteristic pierced GRVI cypher and six-pointed form, each suspended from the dark-blue, red, and light-blue shot-silk ribbon proper to the award; two show notable ribbon fraying, soiling, and adhesive residue at the top, consistent with prior mounting for display. The cupro-nickel War Medal bears the crowned effigy of George VI on the obverse and the lion-trampling-dragon reverse, on its red-white-and-blue striped ribbon, and appears mounted with a portion of a second medal or a ribbon bar bracket visible in the photographs. The RAMC and Royal Engineers badges are brass, crowned, and show the wear expected of worn insignia. A small pierced-star pin, tentatively associated with a Thistle-pattern collar device, is mounted on a stick fitting. The remainder of the lot comprises roughly two dozen brass and gilt buttons of Royal Navy anchor, Royal Arms lion-and-unicorn, lyre (bandsman’s), and general-service pattern, plus assorted plain and livery types, alongside the Empire Day medalet on its tricolor ribbon. Condition throughout is fair to good for age, with toning, verdigris, and handling wear on the buttons and badges, ribbon damage as noted on two Stars, and edge patina on the medalet. A wide-ranging estate grouping of standard WWII British campaign medals and branch insignia, offered together as assembled.
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