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Description: | whole : (see) MED 861
component parts: in original cardboard presentation box, the hinged lid of which has been detached. Accompanying the piece is an
explanatory leaflet identical in all respects to that accompanying MED 861 except for text at top and bottom which reads - 'Please do not
destroy this. When you have read it carefully through kindly pass it on to a friend' (top) and 'Replicas of the medal are issued by the
Lusitania Souvenir Medal Committee, 32, Duke Street, Manchester Square.W.1. All profits accruing to this Committee will be handed to
St.Dunstan's Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Hostel.'
First World War British copy of the German first issue 'Lusitania Medallion' by Karl Goetz. The confusing date error on
the original German work was seized upon by the British and exploited for propaganda purposes, the intention being to demonstrate that the
sinking was cynically pre-planned. Some 300,000 British copies were made on the instructions of Captain Reginald Hall RN, Director of Naval
Intelligence. The financial outlay for the production of many of these was covered by Mr Gordon Selfridge, the department store owner, at a
cost of several thousand pounds to himself. The British copy may be identified by its cruder finish, while the date in the obverse exergue
reads '5.MAY 1915' and not '5.MAI 1915'. The umlauts are also missing from the reverse text, see also notes to MED 937. Proceeds from the
sales of the British version were directed to St Dunstan's Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Hostel.
On-Line exhibition: http://www.iwm.org.uk/online/lusitan/lusi1.htm | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | First World War & British anti-German Propaganda & (after) 8/1915 Atlantic & RMS Lusitania Sinking of by U20 & 7/5/1915 commemorative propaganda RMS Lusitania | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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