Inheritance of medals

That's interesting, the rule of inheritance for medals.
I really don't think it matters which relative receives them, as long as it is someone who appreciates them and will look after them for future generations.
I say this as someone who sold my father's medals to Sotherby's decades ago, and now regrets this. One was a valuable Russian military medal with a red star. I was only early 20s and had no idea, nor any desire to keep it, until of course I now have children and grandchildren of my own.
(I'd probably have given them to a son, though, not a daughter!)

The reason I gave my son my youngest child his Grandfathers medals was because he was researching his ancestors war records and asked me for any photographs or paperwork relating them. His sisters had never shown any interest. I think that the wife then eldest child and so on should inherit.

My mother received a post-humous medal for her war service. It belongs to the female line of the family...

Bequeathing medals can create more difficulties than you can imagine, as I am finding at the moment.

i see no point in these 'rules'. Each custodian of the medals should be free to leave them as they see fit, hopefully to the person they believe will most treasure them.

In my generation of the family i am the custodian of my granfathers, childless uncle and great-uncle's and my father's medals. On my demise they will go to DS who would like them and has children he can pass them on to. DD is quite happy with this.

I have no idea what happened to my father’s WW2 medals. I suspect that my mother threw them out, along with a lot of other stuff, when she had dementia. 🙁

I do have the official note to say he’d been ‘mentioned in dispatches’ though.

I have my father's medals mainly because my brother opted out of dealing with anything after dad died. They will go to my son as he was in the military himself. As I have a son and a daughter I tend to think that he will get anything from the male line and she will get jewelry etc from the female line

The important thing is to keep any medals and paperwork relating to them together. Also if you have a photograph of the recipient, especially in uniform, this is beneficial to authenticate their provenance.
I also had a cane left to me, I think it's called a swagger stick? And a documents file like a little briefcase.

I can't post a picture but you can buy frames especially made to take a photo and military medals, with room for a short inscription too.

www.empiremedals.com/collections/framing?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI78mD1KTwiwMVR6JQBh1n1QE7EAAYAiAAEgJhzvD_BwE

Other retailers available.

It hurt me terribly that my mother gave my father's medals to my brother. I was the one who would sit up at night and listen to his war stories. I was the one who polished them every November for the parade that he never felt able to go to. I didn't care that he got the coin collection that was the only thing of value but his medals mattered.

I don't agree with the order given as I think it depends on the relationship not sex or ordering of birth.

DH had , and so I have FIL’s medals including his DSO with Bar, Croix de Guerre avec Paume and others which I have had identified but won’t list and I know that his brother is not particularly interested, in fact he is a more than a bit funny about his father’s distinguished war record.
DH’s youngest sister wanted them to go to the Imperial War Museum, but it has recently been announced that the IWM are closing the Lord Ashcroft VC Gallery and that any unreturned medals will be consigned to a vault.
Well I don’t want “ours” to disappear into the depths of the IWM and have (unilaterally) decided they should go to D1 whose boys are fascinated by their “war hero” great grandfather and. I know D1 will value them.
If we’d had boys nobody would have questioned eldest son passing them to eldest son and I sincerely hope there is no objection as I am determined (but don’t want to fall out!)

Allira

I can't post a picture but you can buy frames especially made to take a photo and military medals, with room for a short inscription too.

Yes, SiL has a nice one like that with his Royal Marines' beret folded in it too.

I’ll be passing my father’s and grandfather’s medal on to a daughter who is most interested in our family tree

It's an American site so I shan't be taking any notice of it.
Not that I have my father's medals, someone else in the family does.
The DC can decide who has their other grandfather's medals.

A dear departed friend of ours gave all his military medals to our middle son because they both thought the world of each other. There's nothing wrong with that. Mizpah 123 making a mountain out of a molehill.

My DF inherited his father's war medals. They went as far back as the Boer War up to mid 1920 conflicts. These eventually went to my eldest brother then on to his eldest son. No Wills involved in first two owners then whilst 3rd owner hadca Will no mention who was to inherit them. Bit of a sore point as a female was eldest in family and who knew the GF very well, the others not so well.

Any rules about medals probably depend entirely on which country you live in, so I doubt that anyone can state rules that are applicable everywhere.

I have neither inherited nor earned any medals, so I don't have any to leave. If I had, I would probably give them to a museum.

My dad had 2 medals from wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in the early 1950s. When he passed away and mum moved to a care home, I asked if I could have dad's medals. I've got them and am proud of dad for his achievements. If anything happens to me, I've asked that the medals go to my cousin or his brothers.

But then again you are talking about war medals. Oops!

I have my late husband's army service medals and my late Dad's National Service medal - they are very precious to me. My LH's were on top of his coffin alongside his Tam O'Shanter and Union flag which were presented to me at his graveside. My younger son wore his Father's medals on his right hand lapel on his wedding day. He will inherit the medals as I know they are important to him too.

I inherited my Grandfather's WW1 medals and discovered the DCM was a fabrication. He had put a DCM medal ribbon on a Military medal which has the same face as a DCM and a different inscription on the other face. His regimental number was correct on the engraving on the rim, but the name was similar but different, and the same as someone who actually did get a DCM in the same regiment. He duped his whole family and many of his soldier friends.

I inherited my grandfathers war medals. I was his only granddaughter, he had grandsons. He was very fond of me and he and grandma lived with us. He died when I was 6 and Dad gave them to me when 16 and I have treasured them ever since. I offered them to my male couisins some years back but they showed no interest. We have no children, and I am sad I have no one to pass them onto. That is the reason why I have never sent off for the war medal my Mom was entitled to. I think it should go to the one who would cherish them the most.

the husband threw them out//his /to many friends he lost