This commercially produced medalet is sometimes wrongly listed as a Sunderland tribute medal. These pendants were in fact sold to raise funds for the Sunderland Welcome Home Committee, priced at sixpence per medal. They were struck in June 1901 by Mr Percival Craig, General Manager of the Avenue Theatre, Sunderland.
_______________________________________________
Sunderland Daily Echo, 17th June 1901
I have received from Mr Percival Craig one of the commemoration medals which that gentleman has, with the approval of the Welcome Home to Volunteers Committee, had struck in honour of the men returned from the front. It is about the size and colour of a sovereign, and bears on the obverse the figures of two khaki-clad warriors flanking a gun, the legend being “Commemoration Medal 1901. 15th I.Y. 3rd V.B.D.L.I.” On the reverse is the Corporation coat-of-arms, with the inscription “Sunderland Volunteer Service in the Boer War”. The price of the medal, which has a ring enabling it to be used as a pendant, sixpence, and the entire profits will be handed over to the committee mentioned above. Several jewellers have the souvenirs on sale.
