Liverpool Victoria Legal Friendly Society Tribute Medal

H. Cook, an employee of Liverpool Victoria Legal Friendly Society was awarded this 9ct gold tribute medal by the Society in gratitude for his military service during the First World War. It is inscribed on the front, 'Who stands if freedom fall? who dies if England live - Kipling', and on the reverse, 'To H Cook from his fellow employees (and the committee of management) in remembrance of his loyal and voluntary response to his country's call'. The Society, which began in Liverpool in 1843 provided insurance for working class families. They awarded other members of its staff medals like these with their names individually engraved. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, ‘For All We Have And Are’, from which the line is taken, was written a month after the war began. Like many other writers, Kipling wrote pamphlets and poems which enthusiastically supported the country’s war aims. His writings were very popular with the British public. His son, John, was sadly killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, aged just 18.