The death notice for Colour Sergeant William Birchall

Published in the Reporter 6th October 1917.
BARDSLEY SOLDIER.
Sgt-Major W. Birchall Dies from Wounds.
It was with much regret that the people in Bardsley learned this week that 350051 Sergeant-Major WILLIAM BIRCHALL, Manchester Regiment, T.F. C Coy 1/9th battalion, had passed away as the result of wounds received whilst serving with the forces in France. News that he had been wounded in the right leg came through to his wife and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Birchall, of Bardsley, last week, and on Wednesday morning of this week a letter came from the Rev. G.M.Wheeler, Church of England chaplain, stating that he never recovered from his collapse, and passed peacefully away to his rest and reward. By all who knew him in Bardsley, Sergeant-Major BIRCHALL was respected and beloved for his kindliness and ever present desire to do a good turn to anyone in need of it. He joined the Volunteers 17 years ago. He visited New Zealand after his sister’s death, which took place at her uncle’s in Dunedin, and whilst he was away he joined the Dunedin City Guards. He was away rather over 12 months, and on his return he entered the Territorials. He was colour-sergeant when they were called up for service in August 1914, and went to Egypt and the Dardanelles. During that campaign he was slightly wounded in the chest. Later he came to France. He was there wounded in the neck by a piece of shell, and on recovery rejoined his regiment, and removed with them to Belgium, where he was wounded on the 16th September, sustaining a compound fracture of the right leg. He died on the 25th September, and was buried in the military cemetery near the clearing station by the Church of England chaplain, Re. G.M. Wheeler. He was 36 years old. The family are associated with Bardsley Church and School, and are much asteemed in the village. He leaves a wife, Mrs Edith Brichall, of 27, Ann St, Roslyn, Dunedin, New Zealand, and two children, a boy and a girl. (William Birchall is buried in the Mendinghem Military Cemetery).

As a side note I have Williams medals.

Featured medal: GV Imperial Service Order

Here’s my latest addition to my collection of service and campaign medals, an Imperial Service Order from the period of George V, 1910-1935.

This one is named to a bloke called Albert Smith. Interestingly my research shows that Albert was a biologist who published widely on mollusks and was admitted to the order in 1911. Mollusks. Mmmmm delicious tasty mollusks.

Wiki has a short article on the medal, “… The Imperial Service Order was established by King Edward VII in August 1902. It was awarded to the administration and clerical staff of the Civil Service throughout the British Empire for long and meritorious service. Normally a person must have served for 25 years to become eligible, but this might be shortened to 16 years for those serving in unsanitary locations. Both men and women were eligible, and receipients of this one-class order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters ‘ISO’…”.

When does an accumulation become a collection?

About six years ago I walked into a second-hand store in North Bay. There under the counter was what would later prove to be a World War II German Wound Badge in Silver. Of course I bought it and so began an obsession. Today I have an accumulation of World War II and World War I campaign medals. I call it an accumulation because it has so many holes and because I have not yet lurched fully into the morass of variants out there.

Along the way I have also picked up a rat bag collection of helmets, war badges and arm bands. At the beginning I focused on exclusively Third Reich stuff but I hit a wall early on. Partly the problem comes from the baggage that comes from having a case full of swastikas hanging on the wall. Then there is the problem of cost. Basically I have a modest amount of disposable income so it’s pretty easy to exceed my self-imposed limit of $500 per item. The Jerry stuff, well there’s a handful of things out there for less than this, EK’s (Iron Crosses), Flower War Medals, some of the more common War Badges and the War Merit Cross series. After that it rapidly escalates into high risk territory. High risk because the manufacturing of fakes basically started even before the war was over to satisfy the returning G.I.’s desire for souvenirs. And since then they have gotten better, so good that unless you really have your wits about you, you can spend a lot of cash on what is really an expensive lead pencil.

So I decided to branch out and collect campaign medals from all of the combatant nations. It’s been a lot more rewarding generally because the different countries use differing iconography and manufacturing methods when they strike these things. Some of them are quite pretty, some of them a terribly industrial, all of them represent something.

My favourite items are a King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom (2490 issued), a Southern Rhodesian War Service Medal (1700 issued), a Newfoundland War Service Medal (800 issued), a U-Boat torpedo timer & case and my WWI Prussian Infantry Pickelhaube (spiked helmet). As I pick up interesting items I will be showing them off here. No-one will care, but that never stopped me before.