To Honour and Decorate

Or Review, Recognise, Reward.

This evening was scheduled our monthly talk. July's talk was to be on Cumbrian Bravery Medals and to be delivered by two of our wonderful volunteers and medal enthusiasts, Alec and Graham. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, they found that they were unable to do all the research that was required for the talk. Also, the Museum has had to suspend its events programme and cancel all activity until the beginning of September.

Now, I am no expert on medals and can just about identify 'Pip, Squeak and Wilfred' but we have many in our Collections. From a Waterloo medal to Victoria Crosses, we have drawer cabinets full of them, lovingly laid out by Graham under the guidance of Stuart, our recently retired Curator. Each of these medals have a connection to a person and we are priviledged to look after them. Whether gallantry medals or service medals, each one has its own story to tell.

I am lucky enough to have my dad's medals at home with me. But for some folk there is not family to leave them too or there is a disconnect between members of the family, so they are given to the Museum. People always want to have their relatives medals on display, but we are limited with the amount of room we have. Hence our drawer units which house most of our medals which means that we can display many medals easily.

Of course medals are awarded for numerous things. We often think of the Olympics or Commonwealth Games but I am sure we remember medals being given out at schools, which could be commemorative medals or to mark a specific achievement. Alec and Graham had chosen to talk about Cumbrian Bravery Medals and were looking wider than medals within our military collections. Medals such as the King Edward medal awarded to those who helped with the Wellington Pit disaster. It is a shame that we have had to temporarily cancel it and hope we can reschedule the talk for another time.