posted 11-18-2007 12:08 PM            

We found this nice little medal yesterday at the Pier show. It is made by P.W. Ellis & Co. of Toronto, Canada, the medal is for a Grenadier Guards boxing match on February 6, 1920 that may or may not have happened. We say this because the medal inscription has a space to name the winner of the match but it is blank. Because the medal was made by a Canadian maker, we believe that the organization it refers to is the Canadian Grenadier Guards which is a primary reserve infantry battalion and Canada's oldest militia unit. We have not had time to do further research on whether there is any relationship to the Grenadier Guards of the British Army.

posted 11-18-2007 01:32 PM            

Not all medals they have were exhibited and/or pictured. Your specific medal is not mentioned in this catalogue, but Richard Gerrard - artefact curator - is known to be very helpful.

posted 11-18-2007 07:09 PM            

The Canadian Grenadier Guards appear to have no relationship with the English regiment except their place in the order of precident. The Canadians did not even receive the title "Grenadier" until 1912, when they became the Grenadier Guards of Canada. The logic appears to have gone like this. The English Grenadier Guards are the oldest regiment of foot in the British Army and second in precidence to the Coldstream Guards, so named because they met King Charles II at Coldstream on his return to London following the restoration.

The second oldest Canadian regiment got the same title as its English counterpart in the order of precidence. It also preformed similar ceremonial funcitons.

British regiments were originally numbered in the order they were formed and insisted on preserving their ranking even when county names replaced numbers in the 19th century. When I did my doctoral research at the National Army Museum in London, I found that even the regimental journals were not alphabatized but put on the shelf in order of regimental precdince.

Nice medal, by the way.