Material Type

Artifact

Other Name

WWI MILITARY MEDAL GROUPING

Date Range From

1914

Date Range To

1917

Materials

SILVER, BRONZE, WATERED RIBBON

No. Pieces

1

Height

0.5

Length

14.5

Width

10.0

Description

FOUR FIRST WORLD WAR MEDALS MOUNTED TO A RED FELT-BOARD WITH BLACK FELT BACKING. MEDALS ARE DESCRIBED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. THE MILITARY CROSS, SILVER, WITHOUT A BAR, DISPLAYS THE G.V.R. CYPHER AND CROWN AT EACH END OF THE CROSS; UNNAMED AS ISSUED. FIXED TO A WHITE RIBBON WITH A PURPLE STRIPE THROUGH THE CENTER, BY A SILVER BAR. A 1914-15 STAR, BRONZE, DISPLAYS THE MEDAL FRONT, WITH AN EMBOSSED IMAGE OF CROSSED SWORDS BENEATH A WREATH, TOPPED WITH A CROWN AND MARKED WITH THE G.V.R CYPHER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WREATH. RIBBON OVER THE CROSSED SWORDS WITH EMBOSSED TEXT, “1914-15”. IMPRESSED ON THE BACK, “77256 L/CPL. G. C. ROGERS 7-CAN. INF. BN.”. FIXED TO RED, WHITE, AND BLUE, THREE-STRIPE GRADIENT RIBBON, BY A RING. THE BRITISH WAR MEDAL, SILVER, DISPLAYS THE MEDAL BACK, WITH AN EMBOSSED PROFILE OF KING GEORGE V AND EMBOSSED TEXT AROUND EDGES “GEORGIVS V BRITT: OMN: REX ET IND: IMP:”. MEDAL HAS IMPRESSED TEXT ALONG ROWER RIM, “CAPT. G. C. ROGERS.” FIXED TO AN ORANGE RIBBON, WITH A WHITE, BLACK AND ROYAL BLUE BORDER, BY A SILVER BAR. VICTORY MEDAL (INTER-ALLIED WAR MEDAL, BRONZE, DISPLAYS THE MEDAL FRONT, WITH AN EMBOSSED DEPICTION OF VICTORY AS A WINGED WOMAN; UNNAMED. FIXED TO AN IRIDESCENT RIBBON, WITH VIOLET MOVING THROUGH TO A CENTRAL RED, THEN MOVING BACK TO VIOLET, BY A BRONZE RING. MILITARY CROSS AND VICTORY MEDAL RIBBONS HAVE BECOME COMPLETELY UNGLUED AND PULL AWAY FROM THE BACKING. HOLES IN RIBBON BACKING AND REMNANTS OF FISHING LINE FROM WHERE THE MEDALS WERE TIED DOWN.

Subjects

PERSONAL SYMBOL

Historical Association

MILITARY

History

ACCORDING TO HIS CANADIAN MILITARY SERVICE FILE, GEORGE CLARENCE ROGERS WAS BORN ON AUG. 21, 1892, IN BRANDON, MANITOBA. HE ENLISTED AS A PRIVATE NOV. 6, 1914, WITH THE 30TH BATTALION CEF. UPON ARRIVAL IN FRANCE ON MAY 4, 1915, HE WAS TAKEN ON STRENGTH BY THE 7TH BATTALION CEF. AFTER 18 MONTHS ON THE FRONTLINES, NOW THE RANK OF LIEUTENANT, HE WAS TAKEN ON STRENGTH INTO THE 52ND SQUADRON OF THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS. ON AUG. 31, 1917, HE WAS PROMOTED TO CAPTAIN AND AWARDED THE MILITARY CROSS FOR GALLANTRY AND DISTINGUISHED SERVICE IN THE FIELD. A SUPPLEMENT TO THE EDINBURGH GAZETTE, PUBLISHED JAN. 10, 1918, INCLUDES UNDER A LIST OF THOSE AWARDED THE MILITARY CROSS, “LT. GEORGE CLARENCE ROGERS, INFY. AND R.F.C. FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND DEVOTION TO DUTY ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. HE HAS RENDERED VALUABLE SERVICE TO THE ARTILLERY IN RANGING THEM ON HOSTILE BATTERIES. IN ORDER TO CARRY OUT THE SHOOTS SUCCESSFULLY HE HAS FLOWN LONG DISTANCES OVER THE LINE UNDER VERY HEAVY ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE, RETURNING IN NEARLY EVERY CASE WITH HIS MACHINE BADLY DAMAGED BY PIECES OF SHELL: AND ALTHOUGH FREQUENTLY ATTACKED BY HOSTILE AIRCRAFT, HE ENGAGED AND DROVE THEM OFF WITH SCARCELY ANY INTERRUPTION TO THE SHOOT.” ROGERS WAS WOUNDED OCT. 27, 1917, AND DIED OF HIS WOUNDS OCT. 30, 1917, AT #36 CASUALTY CLEARING STATION. HE IS REMEMBERED WITH HONOUR AT ZUYDCOOTE MILITARY CEMETERY IN FRANCE. A LETHBRIDGE DAILY HERALD ARTICLE PUBLISHED NOV. 1, 1917, READS, “CAPT. CLARENCE ROGERS… LIVED MOST OF HIS LIFE IN LETHBRIDGE. HE WAS THE SON OF CANON GEORGE ROGERS A FORMER MAYOR OF THE CITY. CAPT. ROGERS WENT TO PUBLIC SCHOOL HERE… HE ENLISTED AT THE VERY COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR AS A PRIVATE WITH A COAST BATTALION AND SPENT MANY MONTHS IN THE TRENCHES.” ON MARCH 28, 2019, COLLECTIONS TECHNICIAN KEVIN MACLEAN INTERVIEWED CAROL AND BRETT CLIFTON REGARDING THEIR DONATION OF VARIOUS LETHBRIDGE AND MILITARY MEMORABILIA. G. C. ROGERS’S MEDALS WERE COLLECTED BY BRETT CLIFTON, BUILDING ON THE COLLECTION OF HIS LATE FATHER, CHRIS CLIFTON, AND DONATED IN HIS MEMORY. ON THEIR MOTIVES FOR DONATING THE COLLECTIONS, CAROL CLIFTON NOTED, “THE FIRST REASON THAT WE DECIDED TO DONATE AT THIS TIME…IS THAT WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A NICE WAY TO HONOUR [CHRIS] TO MAKE SURE THAT THE COLLECTION ALWAYS STAYED IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA AND THAT IT’S AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR INTERESTS. [THE DONATION] WOULD BE SOMETHING IN HIS MEMORY THAT WOULD KEEP HIS MEMORY ALIVE.” ON HER HUSBAND’S INTEREST IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA HISTORY, CAROL CLIFTON ELABORATED, “CHRIS PASSED AWAY…[HE] REALLY MADE US INTERESTED IN HISTORY. FOR HIM IT WAS ALL ABOUT LOCAL HISTORY, SO ANYTHING THAT HE COLLECTED HAD A LETHBRIDGE OR SOUTHERN ALBERTA CONNECTION OR HE DIDN’T COLLECT IT. HE LIKED TO RESEARCH THEM.” “[CHRIS] WAS VERY PROUD TO HAVE BEEN RAISED MORMON FROM A MORMON FAMILY THAT HAD DEEP PIONEER ROOTS INTO UTAH, AND WERE ORIGINALS TO UTAH AND ORIGINALS TO SOUTHERN ALBERTA. ALONG WITH THAT MORMONS…REALLY ENCOURAGE HISTORY IN TERMS OF COLLECTING THEIR ARTIFACTS OR RELIGIOUS ARTIFACTS, AND GENEALOGY. [CHRIS DID] ALL OF HIS OWN GENEALOGY AND HE WOULD DO GENEALOGY FOR ANYONE HE KNEW. WE JUST LITERALLY HAVE REAMS OF PERSONAL HISTORY AND GENEALOGY IN THAT FORM. IT GREW FROM THERE. [CHRIS] WAS A COLLECTOR AT HEART, HE BEGAN COIN COLLECTING AND DID A LOT OF WORK FOUNDING A NUMISMATICS SOCIETY IN TOWN AND BELONGED TO SEVERAL, AND DISPLAYED ON A NATIONAL LEVEL.” “IN TERMS OF THE MILITARY ITEMS, I WOULD SAY [HIS INTEREST BEGAN] WITH HIS DAD BEING FROM THE CALGARY TANK REGIMENT IN DIEPPE AND A PRISONER OF WAR. HIS DAD’S MOTHER HAD SAVED A BUNCH OF ITEMS AND BEFORE CHRIS’ DAD PASSED AWAY, HE GAVE EVERYTHING TO CHRIS…THAT KIND OF FOSTERED [HIS INTEREST IN MILITARY COLLECTIONS] AND THEN IT JUST GREW INTO INTERESTING LOCAL THINGS.” “CHRIS LOVED SOUTHERN ALBERTA, AND NO MATTER WHAT, HE NEVER WOULD HAVE LEFT SOUTHERN ALBERTA. HE LOVED TO TRAVEL BUT HE NEVER WOULD HAVE MOVED. HE LIVED IN MAGRATH AND LETHBRIDGE HIS WHOLE LIFE AND HAD NO INTEREST IN ANY OTHER PLACE BUT HERE.” ON CHRIS’ RESEARCH EFFORTS, CAROL CLIFTON RECALLED, “CHRIS WAS METICULOUS. ANYTHING CHRIS DID, HE DID IT TEN TIMES MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE WOULD. HE WOULD NOT GIVE UP…WHEN [HIS SON] BRETT DID THE CENOTAPH WORK, CHRIS WOULD HELP HIM IDENTIFY [THE NAMES] AND IT WOULD BE A DEAD END AFTER ANOTHER DEAD END, AND THE NEXT THING YOU KNEW WAS CHRIS HAD FOUND A RELATIVE IN ENGLAND WHO WAS A GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER’S NEIGHBOR. HE WOULD LITERALLY SPEND YEARS RESEARCHING ONE THING. IT WAS JUST HIS PERSONALITY AND HIS LEVEL OF INTEREST AND HE DIDN’T STOP THERE, HE WOULD DO IT FOR ANYONE…HE WAS A VERY GIVING PERSON AND HE WAS SO FANTASTICALLY GOOD AT THAT TYPE OF RESEARCH.” “[CHRIS] AND BRETT TOGETHER WOULD DO [THE RESEARCH] AND I WOULD DO IT OUT OF INTEREST…I DON’T KNOW OF ANYONE WHO DID IT TO THE LEVEL HE DID. HE WOULD BE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT FOLLOWING A LEAD IN EUROPE ON SOMEONE HE DIDN’T KNOW FOR SOMEONE HE BARELY KNEW…[CHRIS WAS] TOTALLY SELF-TAUGHT…OF COURSE WITH THE INTERNET IT BECAME MUCH EASIER FOR EVERYONE TO [SEARCH]. THE GENEALOGY HE DID BEFORE WAS PRE-INTERNET SO THAT INVOLVED A LOT OF ARCHIVAL THINGS…HE BEGAN RESEARCH WORK VERY EARLY IN THE INTERNET AND WE GOT OUR FIRST COMPUTER IN 1995, AND HE PRETTY MUCH DID RESEARCH FROM THEN ON. HE WAS INTERESTING IN THAT NO MATTER WHAT RESEARCH HE DID HE DIDN’T WANT CREDIT FOR IT. HE DIDN’T WANT TO BELONG TO THINGS…IN ADDITION, HE DIDN’T LIKE TO DO THE WRITING, ALTHOUGH HE COULD WRITE, BUT HE WAS THE BEST PROOF READER BECAUSE HE WAS SO METICULOUS, AND HE WOULD PROOF READ FOR ANYONE. [IF] SOMEBODY WROTE AN ARTICLE HE WOULD BE A PROOF READER OR A FACT CHECKER. IT WAS JUST HIS NATURE…[HE WAS] STUBBORN, AND COMPETITIVE, AND INTERESTED, AND METICULOUS, AND IF HE DID IT IT’S CORRECT. IF THERE’S A MISTAKE IN IT HE SURE DIDN’T KNOW IT. HE WOULD HAVE NEVER PUT ANYTHING DOWN HE WASN’T PRETTY DARN SURE OF.” FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION PLEASE SEE THE PERMANENT FILE P20190007001-GA. FOR MORE INFORMATION INCLUDING COPIES OF THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD ARTICLES, AND OTHER REFERENCED DOCUMENTS PLEASE SEE THE PERMANENT FILE P20200014001-GA.

Catalogue Number

P20200014002

Acquisition Date

2020-05

Collection

Museum

Less detail