Understanding your Great Grandfather’s or Grandfather’s World War 1 medals. Now this is the standard set issued to many who fought for British and Commonwealth (Empire) side in WW1, affectionately known by the veterans as “Pip, Squeak and Wilfred”. The affection comes from a popular British cartoon series at the time called The adventures of Pip, Squeak and Wilfred and consisted of three characters.

In terms of their military meaning and importance, these are them in order of precedence – left to right.

Now, “Pip” is The ‘1914 – 1915 Star,’ campaign medal awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces (including the South African Army) who served in any theatre of the First World War against the Central European Powers during 1914 and 1915. Distinguished by the ribbon in the colours of the British Union Flag/Jack “washed” out.

“Squeak” is the ‘British War Medal,’ campaign medal of the United Kingdom which was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces (including South Africa) for service in the First World War. The front depicts King George V with a latin inscription about the King, similar to what you would find on coins. The back shows the dates of the First World War and St. George on horseback. The colour of the ribbon has no known significance.

Finally “Wilfred” – The ‘Victory Medal’ (South Africa) is the Union of South Africa’s version of the Victory Medal (United Kingdom), a First World War campaign medal of Britain and her colonies and dominions. The medal, never awarded singularly, was awarded to all those South Africans who were awarded the 1914–15 Star, or to all those who were awarded the British War Medal. 

Note; the date on the back ‘1914-1919’ does not depict the end date of the war which was 1918 instead it commemorates the date from which the war was formally remembered – 1919.

The Victory Medal’s ribbon represents the combined colours of the Allied nations, with the rainbow additionally representing the calm after the storm. The ribbon consists of a double rainbow with red at the centre.

These medals are worn in precedence to the World War 2 medals if your ancestor or parent fought in both WW1 and WW2. If your ancestor also fought in the Boer War, those medals i.e his Boer War campaign medals (whether he fought on the British side or the Boer side) will precede these WW1 ones in the more ‘senior’ position. The basic rule with medals basically is the closer to the centre of the body (the heart), when the medals are worn on the left breast, the more senior the medal or decoration.

The first ‘war’ a veteran fights in – all his campaign medals for that war – will precede the next war that he fought in and all those campaign medals. Decorations (higher awards for bravery and the like) precede ‘all’ campaign medals regardless of the war in terms of seniority. Service medals i.e. for years of service and medals (and even decorations) awarded by another country are worn in the junior position (furtherest from the ‘heart’).

Here are two interesting examples of this – one showing a South African War (1899-1905) Veteran fighting on the Boer Side – his ‘Boer War’ medals precede his First World War Medals and the other shows a South African 1st World War Veteran who went on to fight in the 2nd World War.

A rare example of someone with all three campaign medal sets from the three different wars – The South African War 1899-1902 (on the Boer side), the 1st World War and the 2nd World War is Field Marshal Jan Smuts’ medals.

For more on you’re Pop’s 2nd World War set, follow this link: Pop’s WW2 South African medal rack explained

Note: This is a very complex field, and I’m no expert and the intension is to show the basic outline for WW1 medals commonly found, each of the medals has rather extensive qualifying criteria.

Have a look at your Great/Grandfather’s medals and see if they are in the right order and which of these three medals you now recognise.

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Witten and Researched by Peter Dickens