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Good Morning Steve & Neville,

Vaughtons are still a going concern and now operate from 16 Well Street, Birmingham; telephone 01215540032; email [email protected]

They have a website:

vaughtons.com/

They are obviously very proud of their history and their website has a “Heritage” section which immediately told me your medallions were made at 135 Constitution Hill, Birmingham:

“The company was originally named ‘P. Vaughton’, working out of Little Hampton Street in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. In 1897 the firm had been renamed to ‘Vaughton Brothers’ and had relocated to 135 Constitution Hill; the company was listed as a ‘Buttonmaker, Medalist and Mint’.”

Also, besides making the 1895-1910 version of the FA Cup they made the G, S & B medals for the 1908 Olympics.

Possibly in their files they might have letters telling you more about the Burgh of Stirling medallions and their presentation.

Why have Neville & I been able to find nothing in the newspapers of the day? The local paper was the Stirling Observor which was published between at least 1839-1945. However it appears the issues from 1893-1913 have not been digitised for whatever reason. I access papers of the past via my enhanced membership of FMyP which I think is the same as subscribing to newspapers.com.

The other possibility that has occurred to me is contacting the Stirling Local History Society:

www.stirling-lhs.org/

There is also a Stirling City Heritage Trust and I presume a City of Stirling archive service.

I think an approach to any of the above would best come from a possessor of the medallion and somebody, who when it comes to medals and medallions, knows what they are talking about.

Steve if you know Livery Street you will also know Constitution Hill and Well Street lies a bit further away from the city centre, running north east off the northern end of Constitution Hill.

Regards, David.

David, Neville,

I will contact the Stirling Historical Society as a first point of call, and then Vaughton.
Hope to have some more background info in the next week or so.
Maybe Vaughton struck numerous Boer War medals for schoolchildren and the wider public? Hopefully, they will have an archive of their products.

Cheers,

Steve

Vaughton made a number of ABW commemoratives, including the Newark fund-raising medallion and the "Pretoria Day" brooch/medal shown below.

The latter is of particular interest in that it has an incorrect date for the fall of Pretoria. I have wondered whether this was a salesman's sample, hawked around various retailers in advance of the momentous day. The inclusion of both brooch fitting and suspension loop seems to support this idea, as does the impressed number "6" on the reverse (salesman's sample number?). It is the only example I have come across and is not recorded by Hern.

The Newark medal was, until recently, only known in bronze.

Vaughton also made several Tribute Medals, including those for Bedale, Coleraine, Doncaster, Glenkens. Liskheard, Londonderry, and Ossett.

Bedale Tribute Medal
Coleraine Tribute Medal
Doncaster Tribute Medal
Glenkens Tribute Medal
Liskeard Tribute Medal
Londonderry Tribute Medal
Ossett Tribute Medal







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