In every year since the formation of The Royal Corps of Signals in 1920, its officers and soldiers have been formally recognised for their gallantry and distinguished services on operations across the globe and their vital contribution to the wider tasks undertaken by the British Army. Published by the Royal Signals Institution in celebration of the 2020 centennial this volume records all honours, decorations, and medals awarded since 1920. It includes a wealth of long-forgotten and rarely-seen material and it also records many hundreds of awards that acknowledge the complexity of Royal Signals in its early years-its inextricable link to the Indian Signal Corps; the interweaving of units and personnel from across the Commonwealth during the Second World War and in Korea, Malaya, and Borneo; the role played by Queen's Gurkha Signals and by locally recruited personnel from Palestine, Malaya, Hong Kong, and Malta; and the crucial contribution made by women from the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War and the Women's Royal Army Corps in the post-Second World War period. The volume comprises three parts. To put the operational awards in context, Section One takes a chronological tour through the history of Royal Signals in three eras-the campaigns of the inter-war years, the Second World War, and global conflict and insurgency since 1945. Other chapters deal with non-combatant gallantry and exploration. With many awards no longer available and unfamiliar to many readers in the present-day, Section Two describes the various honours, decorations, and medals in three sub-sections-awards for bravery, awards for distinguished service, and the Mention in Despatches and the various King's and Queen's commendations for bravery and valuable service. The origin and use of each award are explained briefly, and detail is given about the number conferred; many of these chapters contain biographical details of the recipients. Section Three comprises the Register of Awards. It includes 682 honours, decorations, and medals for gallantry (the recommendations or citations for which are replicated in full), and 2,582 appointments to the various orders of chivalry and awards of the British Empire Medal, the Queen's Volunteer Reserves Medal, and the Polar Medal. It also records the recipients of a little under 6,200 mentions in despatches, 36 King's and Queen's Commendations for Bravery or Brave Conduct, 109 Queen's Commendations for Valuable Service, and a multitude of foreign awards. The Register is supported by ten appendices. Six record recipients from the various Empire and Commonwealth signal units linked to Royal Signals in time of conflict or war. The others document awards to personnel of the various women's services; to Queen's Gurkha Signals and to locally enlisted personnel from Malaya, Hong Kong and Malta; to military and civilian personnel attached to Royal Signals; and those recognised by the Royal Signals Institution.

Coins from the 18th and early 19th centuries are physically and visually intriguing. In addition to their monetary uses, they were repurposed to communicate private and public messages - from ad hoc scratchings and punch marks to full-scale re-engraving of surfaces. This book aims to give 21st-century readers insight into that experience and to the many uno face="Cambria Math">fficial purposes these objects served. Drawing on the largest extant collection of defaced coins and tokens, this publication brings together for the first time the full-range of expertise required to understand the phenomenon, with contributions from 11 scholars and collectors. It focuses on a significant period in British history, when modification expressed political commentary, commercial activity, familial and emotional commitment, personal identity and life history. It will examine the coins and tokens themselves and look at who modified them, where, why and how. The circumstances of the coins' subsequent survival is explained, and each aspect will be set in its specific historical contexts. Defaced coins and tokens are often enigmatic objects, and this book will o face="Cambria Math">ffer a means of decoding and assessing them, while also drawing attention to their value as a distinctive source of historical evidence. The contributors will also consider what these surviving coins reveal about the society in which they were produced and the light they shed on major historical developments of the period. Tim Hitchcock, for example, discusses the new prison culture that emerged following the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776, evidenced in a growing number of convict tokens made in Newgate. Hamish Maxwell Stewart examines love tokens illustrated with the 'Sailor's Farewell' within the context of the market for sailor's gifts and tattoos to ward against the dangers of oceanic travel. Steve Poole looks at tokens as souvenirs of public hangings, not only in terms of the influence they exerted on contemporary public opinion but as exemplars of the wider material culture of public punishment. And Sally Holloway examines the design and iconography of love tokens exchanged as romantic gifts. As well as 12 essays, there is an annotated catalogue of 100 coins, selected for their individual interest or representativeness of a distinctive type of modification or motif.