PB Medal Mounting

PB Medal Mounting Medal Mounting service. Full size, Miniatures, Court, Swing, New and Old. Current serving, Veterans, Emergency Services and Cadets.
(1)

I have recently had the rather fiddly job of swing mounting a group of 12 medals for a young collector, I mentioned Char...
11/05/2026

I have recently had the rather fiddly job of swing mounting a group of 12 medals for a young collector, I mentioned Charlie and his collection in a previous post and his collection is certainly growing. This group was especially difficult to mount due to the fragility of some of the ribbons, it also includes a number of foreign awards that tell you the story of the recipients war time service. Here is his story as written by Charlie. Thanks all.

Harvey Blackburn was born on the 22nd of October 1918 in the village of Belmont in County Durham.
Before the war he is listed as being a “milk erands man”.

He volunteered for service in the Royal Navy in 1939 and was placed at HMS Royal Arthur for training.
He was an ordinary seaman by rank and was given the service number of J.X.170090.

During his war service, Harvey saw himself in many countries such as France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Egypt and Burma.

He was a keen photographer and took lots of photographs of the people and the sights in many of these places.

On the 4th of March 1942 Harvey married Miss Irene Malyan.
Unfortunately Harvey was at sea during their 1st anniversary however he didn’t forget about Irene and sent a personalised anniversary note.

During Harvey’s extensive war experience he served on many vessels and was stationed at a few shore bases.
These included HMS Royal Arthur, Victory, Vimy, Excellent, Victory III, King George V, Golden Hind, and HMS Berkeley.
(It should be noted Harvey was onboard HMS Berkeley when she was bombed at Dieppe which resulted in her having to be scuttled by HMS Albrighton).

Amazingly Harvey survived the war and made it out with no wounds or injuries.
Harvey passed away on the 30th of April 2008 in Durham, he was 90 years old.

For his war service he was awarded the 1939-1945 star, Atlantic Star with France and Germany clasp, Africa Star, Italy star, Burma star with pacific clasp and the WW2 war medal.

Harvey was also awarded the following medals from foreign countries: Dunkirk medal, USA Asiatic Pacific campaign medal, Chinese memorial medal, Belgian WW2 commemorative medal, Greek WW2 commemorative medal and the Yugoslavia war cross.

I've been soo busy recently with medals, work and other stuff I keep forgetting to post. So here is just a bit of a phot...
08/05/2026

I've been soo busy recently with medals, work and other stuff I keep forgetting to post. So here is just a bit of a photo dump of some of my recent work.

I'll be posting a couple of other groups over the weekend that have more of a story element attached to them.

Grateful as always for the ongoing support.

Cheers troops.

Nice day out at Eden camp today, well worth a visit if you haven't been before. As a medal collector I'm always on the l...
23/04/2026

Nice day out at Eden camp today, well worth a visit if you haven't been before. As a medal collector I'm always on the look out for medals to local recipients, I haven't found many and now I know why... they are all here. 😅

There are some very impressive and informative displays and quite a few tanks, you can't go wrong with tanks and medals.

Have any of my followers ever driven or worked on a Scorpion before?

Much needed remount for this group, previously mounted on a piece of wood🤦🏻‍♂️ with glue and fishing line. Also, the pre...
21/04/2026

Much needed remount for this group, previously mounted on a piece of wood🤦🏻‍♂️ with glue and fishing line. Also, the previous "mounter" obviously ran out of the Afghan ribbon so decided to finish it off with Iraq ribbon instead. The mind boggles.

Anyway, a nice group awarded to a Royal Military Policeman which includes the civilian service Afghanistan medal. This medal was awarded as opposed to the OSM Afghanistan due to some weird award criteria if you ask me. Employed in a close protection role the risk was still the same if not greater.

Royal Military Police - RMP
Exemplo Ducemus
By example shall we lead

Time for a little friendly competition...Who can name all the ribbons and emblems on this recently completed ribbon bar....
11/04/2026

Time for a little friendly competition...
Who can name all the ribbons and emblems on this recently completed ribbon bar.

In your own time...go on😁👍

Good afternoon all, after a long period of interviews, training and research I am pleased to say that I am now an offici...
07/04/2026

Good afternoon all, after a long period of interviews, training and research I am pleased to say that I am now an official Commonwealth War Graves Commission tour guide.
I am also pleased to tell you that I will be giving tours of the war graves in Malton cemetery starting in May.

If you are local to Malton and interested in hearing about the work of the CWGC and also some fascinating stories of some of our local WW1 and WW2 servicemen and women, please follow the link below for upcoming dates, I would really appreciate the support.

I will be advertising this around town and on various social media pages as well, if the tour receives good reviews I can then look at expanding to Norton and Pickering in the future.

Thanks very much, have a good day troops.

Pete

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cwgc-war-graves-week-tour-2026-new-malton-cemetery-tickets-1985898071591

I've had quite a few Wider Service Medals groups just recently and I'm definitely starting to see a change in the modern...
06/04/2026

I've had quite a few Wider Service Medals groups just recently and I'm definitely starting to see a change in the modern groups coming through.

This first pair has the WSM second award clasp issued for an additional 180 days aggregated service.

The GSM 08 with Gulf of Aden clasp was issued for service in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Engaging in hostile operations against Houthi rebels where the use of attack drones against coalition forces was extremely active.

Here is a nice group of medals that I have recently mounted for a collector over in the US, the recipients include the M...
04/04/2026

Here is a nice group of medals that I have recently mounted for a collector over in the US, the recipients include the MN, RE, RAF and Ghurkhas. It also includes one of my favourite looking medals the Mercantile Marine medal, the hardship and danger that these seamen repeatedly put themselves in is truly astonishing. Operating in all weathers and sea states in U-Boat infested waters knowing full well that they could be hit at any moment and that the chances of rescue were extremely slim takes real courage.

The Mercantile Marine Medal was awarded to those who served at sea for at least six months or for taking part on at least one voyage through a designated danger zone 1914–1918. The effigy on the reverse of the bronze medal shows a steamship sailing through rough seas, with a sinking submarine and a sailing vessel in the background, surrounded by a laurel wreath. The ribbon of green, white and red represent a ship's starboard and port running lights with the masthead light in the middle.

133,135 medals were awarded and 14,287 Merchant seamen lost their lives.

Afternoon all, I have recently had the opportunity to complete some large orders for a couple of medal collectors and I ...
26/03/2026

Afternoon all, I have recently had the opportunity to complete some large orders for a couple of medal collectors and I just thought I would share one of the stories of one recipient in particular that I have done some research on.

William Joseph Walsh was born in 1888 in Plymouth, not much is known about his life before the war apart from that he had a sister called Mary.

William joined the 2nd Battalion Devonshire regiment and he landed in Le Havre with the Battalion on the 6th November 1914. The Battalion suffered their first casualty on the 20th.

William fought through many battles and was twice injured in the process, firstly by a shell burst on 5/12/14 only one month after arriving and then again on 31/8/15 when the Germans detonated a mine just outside his trench.

On the 1st July 1916 William took part on the first day of the Somme when he attacked Pozieres, 11 officers and 221 men killed or missing and 5 Officers and 194 men wounded.

He was later promoted to L/Cpl and on the 6th October 1916 he took part in a small raid on a German sap trench, the raiding party reached the assembly point in front of the German lines without a hitch. The British artillery then began firing as instructed to signal the attack to begin, unfortunately, the 18 pounder shells landed short and they had to take cover in previous shell holes. Once the artillery had finished the men then ran from the shell holes and started the attack, in the meantime the off target bombardment had given the German machine gunners ample time to prep their guns. As the raiding party started to move they were cut down with withering machine gun fire. 15 men were killed including William with 19 others wounded, the attack achieved nothing and the British front line in that area still hadn't moved in October 1917.

William has no known grave and he is commemorated on the Loos memorial.

We Will Remember Them.

I have recently finished this amazing group of miniatures for the Grandson of Captain Rowland Hill OBE of the Royal Flee...
18/03/2026

I have recently finished this amazing group of miniatures for the Grandson of Captain Rowland Hill OBE of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA).
Captain Hill joined the RFA in the 1920s and served all through WW2 and beyond, he was Gazetted for his OBE in 1951 for services whilst serving during the Korean war.

Also in the group is the Naval GSM with the Near East clasp, issued for service on Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary - 'Ready for anything'

Now for something completely different, I like a challenge and the Iron Cross is always a tough one to mount correctly. ...
24/01/2026

Now for something completely different, I like a challenge and the Iron Cross is always a tough one to mount correctly. I was asked to mount this by a collector (more about him later👍) to make it look like the picture if possible. A lot of research went into this to make sure I was doing it correctly and a lot of head scratching also.

This is the WW1 German Iron Cross 2nd class,
the Iron Cross, 1st class, and the Iron Cross, 2nd class, were awarded without regard to rank. One had to possess the 2nd Class already in order to receive the 1st Class.
Emperor Wilhelm II reauthorized the Iron Cross on 5 August 1914, at the start of World War I. The 1813, 1870, and 1914 Iron Crosses had three grades:
Iron Cross 2nd class, Iron Cross 1st class and the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. Although the obverse of the medals of each class was identical, the manner in which each was worn differed. The Iron Cross, 1st class, employed a pin or screw posts on the back of the medal, and was worn on the left side, the Iron Cross 2nd Class, and the larger Grand Cross, were suspended from different ribbons: the Grand Cross from a neck ribbon, the 2nd Class from a ribbon on the chest.

Charlie is not your average medal collector, he's a remarkable young man and he certainly knows his stuff, if you have a spare few minutes then please read this news article about him. As he mentions in the interview, he doesn't just collect Allied militaria and he's doing a fantastic job of researching and teaching the history of items such as this. He likes meeting veterans and giving talks to various groups on Remembrance day, showing and explaining his collection. Keep up the good work Charlie. 👍🎖️

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/farming/6611573/new-pitsligo-teenage-antiques-expert-charlie-elphinstone-strichen-antiques/

Address

Malton
YO17

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when PB Medal Mounting posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to PB Medal Mounting:

Shortcuts

Share

Category