help with medal identification please?

[wobblyartist]

Please could anyone help to solve a puzzle. This photo and a letter with a coat of arms and wax seal were kept in perfect condition in some family papers.
The letter is signed from Captain F M Martin and was sent from Siam (Thailand) in 1901 to my great grandparents. The letter is very personal in the way it is written so we are guessing he was close to them.
I have looked into the coat of arms and it is The King of Siam's Coat of Arms (The first one used in Thailand), soon dropped after his reign. Apparently it is still used on the cap badges of the Thai police force but that is all I can find out.
He was apparently there supervising building work building a 'Mint?'.
Any light anyone can shed on him would be fantastic, maybe through his medals or anything.

[wobblyartist]

this is a detail of the wax seal and the coat of arms

[Rena]

Sorry, I can't help with the medals but I was curious enough to look up the address of the Royal Mint in Tailand and it's here: Royal Grand Palace, Chakrapong Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand

Seems your ancestor moved in high places.  We had to learn about various English mints & coinage when I was at school so here goes:  A royal perogative is given for minting (making) coins and medals.  The British Royal Mint is the world's leading export mint, making coins and medals for an average of 60 countries every year. From the end of the 13th century until the start of the 19th, the Royal Mint was located in the Tower of London. Later, needing more space, the Royal Mint moved to Tower Hill and finally to its current location in Llantrisant. Its first responsibility is to make and distribute UK coins as well as to supply blanks and official medals.  I believe it also makes/mints coins for other countries.

[wobblyartist]

Thank you for that Rena, I am not sure he moved in such high circles judging by the dreadful conditions he describes in his letter. I am wondering if he was some sort of advisor coming from perhaps a royal engineers background. He talks about being in charge of over 200 men working to build the mint, but moaning that it will never be finished!
He even put off the gentleman he was writing to from coming out to Siam because of the conditions there.
I think I will try and send some sort of letter to a Thai museum to see if I can find out what sort of work the British were doing in Siam at that time to try and tie down any links. So that address will be really helpful thank you!
Dawn

[Rena]

I've just seen a coin carrying that coat of arms on a website. 
I can't find anything pertinent to 1900-1901 unfortunately. Siam seemed to like "Made In Britain" as 25 years earlier he'd bought another printing press from us.

http://numis-asia.blogspot.com/2010/03/thailand-portrait-coat-of-arms-coins-of.html

<<The first coins to carry the portrait of HM King Rama 5 were issued in 1876. These coins were minted using the latest steam powered press bought from Taylor and Challen in 1875 and carried the coat of arms, designed by Rama 5 in 1873, on reverse. This series of coins, therefore, are known as the Portrait - Coat of Arms >>
---

For interest:

http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/siamese_money.html
<<in 1857, England's Queen Victoria became aware of the coin shortage in Thailand and sent King Rama IV a coining machine as a gift. This was used to produce the first machine-made Thai coins. The first series of coins in gold and silver have the chakra and elephant on one side and the crown on the other. Stars are used to show the denominations. Because the machine was a gift, these are known as banagarn (royal gift) coins. The machine was hand operated, so only a small total of coins was actually issued. The king was impressed by the minting technology, so he ordered a new minting machine from England, which cost three thousand pounds, and included an engineer's services as part of the purchase agreement. The machine arrived in Bangkok in 1858, but the engineer unfortunately died on arrival. Two replacement engineers were sent; one drowned, but the other set the minting machine up before he also died. Fortunately he had time to train a Thai engineer who was able to carry on. >>

[Rena]

Using the search criteria "Martin AND Siam";   coincidentally in the national archive catalogue there's documentation in the Board of Trade of what could be a younger generation in Siam in 1924 by the name of  F.S. Martin

R505993 MARTIN F S 25/08/1924 SIAM

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp?j=1

[wobblyartist]

That is fantastic Rena and definately gives me somewhere to go next with my search. Thank you so much.
It is just a shame I can't find more on the medals as this could give a picture of where he served prior to 1901. The search goes on.

[Rena]

What a pity your relative wasn't wearing a uniform because I think you'd have had people giving their ideas.

I've surfed and seen Siamese medals but except for two medals on his chest, the rest are too blurred to see any detail and unfortunately I couldn't find a star quite like the one he's wearing.  I visited a few army websites to see who/when/what were in Siam but I was out of luck - I did wonder if a part of the India or Burma forces were in Siam.

Even though the photo is black & white I thought I might have better luck if I tried a medal ribbon website to see if I could identify the ones with the single stripe plus another one. 

I think we need a military expert to marry the ribbon stripes with the outline of the medals. If you fancy trying yourself here's the url

http://www.worldmedals.co.uk/Rib/Britrib/britribb.htm

ribbons & medal chart (year 1900)
http://www.collectors.demon.co.uk/medal-Ribbons.html

[wobblyartist]

brilliant I will try them and hopefully I will come up with something. Thank you very much for your help!