The Grand Order was virtually identical to the Imperial December 3, 2012) Grand Order founded the previous year by the last 16. Hong Shuxu would live comfortably for years until May 1919 Emperor Puyi. In both design and institution, the Grand when he was spotted in Shanghai by Song Jiaoren’s son. He was arrested, charged with murder and executed: Jerome Chen (1972). Order was indelibly linked to the ambitions of one man, 17. Jerome Chen (1972) the former imperial strongman turned President who 18. Article 1, 1912 Decree betrayed two Emperors and finally the Republic. 19. Article 2, 1912 Regulations 20. Article 13, 1912 Decree 21. Articles 2 and 5, 1912 Decree Despite its overt symbolism, the Republican Grand Order 22. Article 4, 1912 Decree survived the widespread revolt against Yuan’s imperial 23. Articles 10, 11 and 12, 1912 Regulations ambitions. After Yuan’s death, it continued to be conferred 24. “The Grand Order”, http://www.huizhang2000.com/china/ by his Beiyang successors. It was abolished by the new beiyang/xunzhang/daxunzhang/daxunzhang.htm (accessed June Guomindang government in 1929 although awards 10, 2013) 25. Paul Kua (1998) effectively ceased the previous year with the defeat of the Beiyang warlords. The 1934 photograph shows Puyi wearing the Imperial Grand Order. In one of those ironies IN THE NEWS of history, it had survived its Republican successor by some six years. Death of Marine Medal of Honor Recipient

Acknowledgements

Paul Kua and his pioneering study on the Grand Order and the Order of the White Eagle published by this Journal in 1998; Donna Chan for assistance in translating the original statutes; and fellow contributors of the Gentleman’s Military Interest Club forum (www.gmic. co.uk), in particular Nick from Moscow.

1. Jerome Chen, Yuan Shi-kai (Rainbow-Bridge Book Co., 1972) 2. For a detailed survey of the Chinese army in the late Qing Empire, see Ian Heath, Armies of the Nineteenth Century: China (Foundry Books, 1998) 3. The commonly held belief that he was poisoned was confirmed in 2008 when forensic tests found levels of arsenic that were 2000 times than that in ordinary people. 4. Aisin-Gioro Puyi, From Emperor to Citizen (Foreign Languages Press, 1986) Marine Captain John J. McGinty III who received the 5. Jerome Chen (1972) Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam died of cancer 6. Paul Kua, “Two Rare Orders of the Early Republic of China”, at Beaufort, South Carolina on January 17. 2014 at Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America, vol.49 no.3 (1998) the age of 73. On July 18, 1966 McGinty, then a Staff 7. Paul Kua gives the name of the Royal Press as “Imprimerie Imp. Sergeant in First Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Roy. De la cour et de l’etat a Vienne” Fourth Marines, was acting platoon leader of a platoon 8. Patricia Welch, Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery protecting the withdrawal of the battalion when it was (Tuttle Publishing, 2008) attacked by an enemy regiment. During the four-hour 9. Patricia Welch (2008) 10. Yan Yong, “Imperial Dress in the Qing Dynasty” in Ming Wilson battle two of his squads became separated from the rest (ed), Imperial Chinese Robes From the Forbidden City (V&A of the platoon. He charged through intense enemy fire Publishing, 2010) to the separated squad and, though himself wounded, 11. The Republican Grand Order was in any event defunct having been he cared for the wounded and assisted in repelling the abolished by the Guomindang (Nationalist) government in 1929. 12. Jerome Chen (1972) enemy attacks, calling in artillery fire within 50 yards of 13. By coincidence, Puyi was the 12th Emperor of the Qing Dynasty the position. When the battle was over the bodies of an and his reign would end in the 12th year of the new century. estimated 500 enemy dead were found on the battlefield. 14. H.G.W. Woodhead, The Truth about the Chinese Republic (Hurst On March 12, 1968 President Lyndon Johnson presented & Blackett, 1925) the Medal of Honor to 2nd Lieutenant McGinty in a 15.The Shanghai Municipal Police was the police force of the Shanghai Municipal Council which governed the Shanghai ceremony at the White House. McGinty also received International Settlement from 1854-1943. It was mainly officered the Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry by foreigners: Wikipedia, “Shanghai Municipal Police” (accessed with Palm.

Vol. 65, No. 2 (March-April 2014) 23 THE 1911 CORONATION MEDAL (POLICE) TO THE ROYAL PARKS

CHARLES P. MCDOWELL

This is the story of one of England’s unique police forces part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The and one of its most unusual and rarest police medals. principal funding for the Royal Parks is through a central The police force was the Royal Parks Constabulary, and government grant, while most of London’s other parks are the medal was the 1911 Coronation Medal to the Royal funded by their local borough councils. The Royal Parks Parks. This is a tale told in two parts, and we start with also generate income from such commercial activities as the Royal Parks. catering and staging public events, including concerts.

Background on the Royal Parks Policing the Royal Parks: Before 1872 the Royal Parks had regular police constables assigned to them, some of London’s Royal Parks were originally owned by the whom lived in and worked out of the entrance lodges monarchy “in right of crown” and were set aside for to the parks. However, in 1872, these constables were their use in hunting and recreation. However, over time replaced by Park Keepers who were given full police as London grew and became more densely populated, powers. The jurisdiction the Park Keepers was strictly the royal parks were increasingly less isolated. To limited to the confines of the parks. In 1974 they were accommodate these changes, some of the parks were renamed the Royal Parks Constabulary (RPC). The kept as open spaces that could also be used by the public. RPC was responsible for the Royal Parks in London With the introduction of the Crown Lands Act of 1851 and at a number of other locations in Greater London ownership of the parks passed from the crown to the and in Edinburgh, Scotland. Unlike most other police government, and they became public parks. Today there forces operating in England and Wales, the Royal Parks are eight parks formally described as Royal Parks, and Constabulary did not report to the : it they cover almost 5,000 acres of land in Greater London. reported to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. They are: The RPC constables maintained the same professional

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (which are adjacent), standards as police forces that come under the Home Green Park, Regent’s Park and St James’s Park are the Office, and their officers were trained at regional largest green spaces in central London. Bushy Park, training centers alongside their Home Office colleagues. Greenwich Park, and are in the suburbs. Constables of the RPC enjoyed full police powers in the parks under their control and had the power to instigate Legal position of the Royal Parks: The public does not criminal proceedings for crimes committed in the Royal have an absolute legal right to use the Royal Parks. Public Parks, but their jurisdiction did not extend outside of the access depends on the “grace and favor” of the Crown, parks themselves. although there are public rights of way. The Royal Parks Agency manages them in accordance with the terms of For many years England’s system of police forces was the Crown Lands Act of 1851. The Royal Parks Agency fragmented into independent regional constabularies, permits the public to use these parks for recreational leading to administrative inefficiencies and excessive purposes, subject to certain rules and regulations designed cost. In 1981 this led to the Chief Constable of Greater to preserve order and prevent abuse within the Parks. The Manchester suggesting that ten regional police forces current regulations are the Royal Parks and Other Open should be established, consolidating many of the smaller Spaces Regulations of 1997. The Royal Parks Agency is forces. His proposal was not acted on. A little over

24 JOMSA twenty years later, in 2004, the Police Superintendents’ Constabulary in England, leaving the responsibility Association proposed the creation of a single national for Holyrood Park in central Edinburgh in the hands police force, but his proposal was likewise rejected. The of Historic Scotland. Many of the officers from the following year, in September of 2005, Her Majesty’s RPC had already transferred into the new Metropolitan Inspectorate of Constabulary1 suggested the existing Police Royal Parks Operational Command Unit, which structure of 43 police forces in England and Wales was was funded through the Royal Parks Agency, with its “no longer fit for the purpose” and recommended that the funding fenced to prevent it being diverted to other smaller police forces be forcibly merged. Not surprisingly, areas. Those who could not were the Chief Constables of the smaller departments did not offered alternative careers support this proposal. However, ultimately a number of mergers did take place, and this effort reached the RPC Background: The Police Coronation Medals in the as well. Edwardian Era

A report by former Metropolitan Police Assistant The “Edwardian Era” in England began with the death Commissioner Anthony Speed recommended structural of Queen Victoria in January of 1901 and the subsequent changes that resulted in the Metropolitan Police taking coronation of her son, King Edward VII. Interestingly, over responsibility for policing the Royal Parks. On this era did not end with Edward’s death in 1910, but April 1, 2004 with the formation of the Royal Parks is generally regarded as extending to the beginning of Operational Command Unit of the Metropolitan Police, the First World War in 1914. This period was one in the “Met” assumed responsibility of policing the Royal which tradition merged with advances in technology Parks in Greater London. The majority of the members and commerce and is regarded by many as an age of of the Royal Parks Constabulary who were eligible were elegance and privilege – especially for the upper classes sworn into the Met on April 27, 2004. However, many of and the wealthy. the Royal Parks constables could not be sworn into the Met, some of them because they were either too old or As part of his coronation celebration in January of because they had already retired from the Met, and these 1901, King Edward VII authorized civil and military constables sought an extension to their policing careers versions of coronation medals to be awarded to people in the RPC. This resulted in an anomaly in which some who either attended the coronation or who participated Royal Parks constables and Met constables worked side in the coronation parade. Medals were issued in silver to by side on the same shift. The Met officers could make members of the Royal family, foreign dignitaries, senior arrests outside of the parks, but the RPC constables government officials and service officers involved in could not. the coronation parade. Selected NCOs and other ranks involved in the coronation parade received the medal in One female RPC officer could not be sworn in alongside bronze. A different medal in silver was issued to mayors, her colleagues because on the date of the swearing in she provosts, and senior civil officials. A third and separate had to go to court to give evidence in a case in which police version was issued to members of the Metropolitan she had made an arrest in St. James’s Park. She attended Police, the City of London Police, the County and the hearing at the Bow Street Magistrates in her RPC Borough Police, the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade, the uniform, but with no police credentials because at the Police Ambulance Service, and the City of London Fire previous midnight her commission expired. When she Brigade.3 This was the first time wearable medals were reported to the court, arrangements had been made for officially awarded as part of a coronation celebration. the Chief Justice to swear her in. After being sworn in, It can be argued that King Edward VII borrowed a she approached the bench and was presented with her related precedent set by his mother, Queen Victoria, who new badge as a constable in the Metropolitan Police. She authorized medals specifically for the police for her silver testified in her case, the miscreant was convicted, and and diamond jubilees.4 WPC Anna Tsangaropoulos walked out of the court as a former member of the RPC and a brand new member The 1911 Coronation of the Metropolitan Police. As she placed her warrant card in her pocket, she said, “it was like it had always George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert: 3 June 1865 been there.”2 – 20 January 1936), who succeeded Edward VII, was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, The final change came when the Serious Organized Crime which he created from the British branch of the German and Police Act (2005) formally abolished the Royal Parks House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His coronation took

Vol. 65, No. 2 (March-April 2014) 25