Bournemouth Crysanthemum and Another

harasha

I usually avoid saturating the Forum with one narrow theme, however, I thought the Bournemouth medal was out of the ordinary. A distant branch of my family actually is or was from Bournemouth.
Also, I would submit to the Forum comments on the name engraved to the Cirencester medal. It has been listed as being awarded to O. Orpel. However, I could not find a name like that in Cirencester. On the other hand, Orpet is very much found in that location. So, I am thinking that the last letter is a "t" rather than an "l."

JCMhouston

Nice group Hayashi, and that does look like a t to me.

dadams

The Cirencester medal is indeed ORPET and would presumably have been an award to the father of the famous Edward Owen Orpet for whom Orpet Park in Santa Barbara, CA is named. This should give you a good start.

Orpet Park

Read Pg 67

--from the 1st link above--

Orpet Park is nestled on a Santa Barbara hillside just below an area known as the Riviera. It's sort of a secret little park, a kind of hidden-in-a-neighborhood park, a bit of a mysterious patch of a park. And yet, horticulturally and historically, it is one of the most important parks in our city.

The park was named after one of Santa Barbara's early master plantsman - a horticulturist, landscape designer, author, and civic leader: Edward Owen Orpet.

Despite his many accomplishments, few of us know of him, or of his contributions to our daily landscape. The dust of time has settled over the scope of his influence, the variety of his plant introductions, his work with orchids, his vast knowledge of all things botanical.

On very clear days, you can stand here on this swale of green and shaded lawn, looking down to where sailboats glide on the glassy blue ocean far below, past palms and aloes and eucalyptus and ficus and flowers that are cosseted among the red-tiled roofs of the city.

From here, in every direction, you see evidence of his beautiful dreams that have materialized into a magnificent reality.

Edward Owen Orpet, this visionary man, was born in England in 1863 to a family of humble means. As a young boy, he helped his family by working after school, and by age 11, was working full time. At that tender age, circumstances ended his formal education. By the time he was 14, he was working as a gardener's apprentice on an estate in Hampshire, England. He became an inveterate and gifted plantsman from that time forward.

In 1887, when he was 24 years old, Orpet obtained a ticket on the White Star Line and sailed from Liverpool, England, to Passaic, New Jersey. He immersed himself even more deeply in his study and cultivation of plants. Eventually, he moved to Massachusetts, where he became a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He was considered an expert in the East, and dispatched gardening information in a series of public appearances. (From Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, for the Year 1896.) Later, he moved to Chicago, and worked as a landscape designer for millionaire Cyrus McCormick, of International Harvester fame.

harasha

Well, I'll be darned. Thank you! This is another reason that I find these inscribed medals to be fascinating.