A rather sad thought about the WWI campaign medals

[+RAF_Louvert]

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I was just wondering if it's occurred to others of you here that, with the passing in recent years of the last WWI combat veterans, there is no one left on the face of this old rock who has the right to wear the campaign medals of 'The Great War'. 



With the exception of the cinema, you will never again see the "Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred" worn on a veteran's coat. I know time marches on and all, but I just find this to be rather sad.

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[Hauksbee]

What did "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" originally stand for?

[+RAF_Louvert]

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When the medal trio was issued right after the war it happened to coincide with a popular comic strip that was just being published in the Daily Mirror.  The strip was called "Pip, Squeak, and Wilfred".

 

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[Hauksbee]

...and here they are: "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred". A brief search on Yahoo turned up a truckload of images. Apparently these little guys were incredibly popular. They existed in just about every form of merchandising you can imagine: stuffed animal toys, cast figurines, clocks, board games, children's bowls, and much more. The newspaper cartoons that carried them were sketchily drawn and utterly humorless (as were many of that age: 1938)

 

For example, the second strip (the black & white one) requires a paragraph in the top right corner to narrate the action. 1. Pip, Squeak and Wilfred tell Egbert to leave the house and never come back. 2. Egbert says he's hungry. 3.He spots some sidewalk artist's drawing of a feast. 4. He's so shocked when he sees they're not real that he passes out. 5. When he comes to, sitting by the drawings, folks think they're his and fill his hat with money. Real knee-slappin' stuff.

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[Hellshade]

That is sad Lou.  I think it's even more sad that they keep coming up with new wars to provide the opportunity to pin new medals on new men.   Because though the colors of the ribbons and the shape of the medals may change over time, they mostly say the same thing.  "This young man went through hell because older men were unwilling or unable come to a rational solution to their differences."

[+Olham]

Lou, I am sure that all those medals that find their ways to Hasse or you, are in the best of hands.
It is a shame that many families seem to sell them, but it's good that you can get them that way.

[Hauksbee]

It is a shame that many families seem to sell them, but it's good that you can get them that way.

But a lot hit the market through Estate Sales when the medal holders die.

[JimAttrill]

My father's WWII medals and a LSGC silver medal (that's the tarnished one)   I suppose they could be eventually sold as a set - but not yet