British Medal Bars with Japanese Awards

Medal bar with Taisho Enthronement medal attributed to Sir Conyngham Greene - British diplomat who served as minister to Switzerland, Romania and Denmark, and as ambassador to Japan.

Jubilee 1897; Coronation 1902; Coronation 1911; Taisho Enthronement Medal 1915.

Sir William Conyngham Greene, GCMG, KCB, PC (29 October 1854 – 30 June 1934) he was made a Privy Counsellor[13] and posted as Ambassador to Japan in December 1912. He was the King's representative at the enthronement of the Taishō Emperor in 1915. According to Greene's obituary in the Times of London, "he remained in Tokyo until the end of the First World War and proved himself a great Ambassador. His open and genial manner won the confidence of the Japanese, and retained it throughout all the vicissitudes of the War and in spite of certain difficulties with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Tokyo. His departure in April 1919 was universally regretted."

Tokyo, circa 1914.

 

Medal bar of War Correspondent Captain Sir W. Maxwell, K.B.E.

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902 (Mr. W. Maxwell. “Standard”); Delhi Durbar 1911; Japan, Empire, Order of the Rising Sun, 5th Class; Khedive’s Sudan 1896-1908, 1 clasp, Khartoum; Japanese Russo-Japanese War Medal 1904-05.

William Maxwell was born in 1860 in Workington, Cumberland to Irish born parents. He was described in the 1881 census as a ‘Newspaper Reporter’ and in 1885 he was assigned by the morning Standard to replace John Cameron in the Sudan, the latter having perished with Hicks relief expedition in 1885. As war correspondent, he experienced the march to Khartoum with Kitchener’s army in 1898 and witnessed the defeat of the Mahdi at the Battle of Omdurman (Queen’s Sudan medal). After describing the spectacular tour of the German Emperor through Palestine and Syria, and covering the first peace conference at the Hague, 1899, he was packed off by his employers to cover the Boer War where he was shut up with the British Forces under White at Ladysmith. Undaunted by this trying experience, he then went to Kimberley and was with Robert’s army in every engagement from the capture of Bloemfontein to the Battles of Lydenburg and Komati Point (medal). He then served as the Standard’s correspondent on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s tour around the Empire, March to November 1901 and the following year published his own account of the voyage - With the “Ophir” Round the Empire. In 1903 Maxwell joined the Daily Mail with which paper he was assigned to cover the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05. He accompanied General Kuroki’s Army from the Battle of Yalu to the Battle of Shaho and was with General Nogi at the surrender of Port Arthur, the campaign was described in his book From the Yalu to Port Arthur: a personal record (1906).​

William Maxwell with interesting (war correspondent?) armband.