My father was showing me his father's WWII medals for service in the South African military. Having found images depicting the official order of wear I noticed that some had reversed ribbons. I presume that this was simply a mistake, but can someone please confirm this?
- The 1939-1945 Star is almost always depicted with the darker blue on the left, but ours is on the right.
- The Africa Star is again almost always depicted with the darker blue on the left with ours in reverse (the image has a bar, but this is the only depiction of the reversed ribbon that I could find).
- The Defence Medal that we have has its ribbon sewn such that the King's head would lie on the reverse when worn (i.e. I presume that one wouldn't wear a medal with the stitching visible).
The Defence Medal in particular is what lends me to believe that they are in error, but I thought that it was odd that 3 of 5 had this trait.