Wigan Album

I have heard of CYMS
Which was I think Catholic Young Men’s Sodality or (Society) in the Catholic Church. I don’t know what the BT stands for.

St. Mary's, Standishgate are asking the same question (link to PDF, question at bottom of 2nd page):
https://www.stwilliamparishwigan.org/uploads/1/2/0/8/120860159/26_june_2022__003_.pdf

They think it could be Young Men's Society Billiard Team?

I would've said "st josephs young mens society boxing (?) "

The YM could be Youth Ministry

I don't think there were any youths back then....

Within the internet searches I've done Badminton features quite a lot within the Catholic churches of the time, so my stab in the dark based on supposition is maybe St Joseph's had a Badminton Team or they could have entered and won a Badminton Tournament. As can be seen in the centre of the medal is a shield and what could be depicted as St Joseph's lilies at either side, and on both sides of the medal are Shamrock leaves, sadly the church cleaners were very avid in their work over the years and the other depictions on the medal and the engraving on the centre shield are very rubbed and unreadable. Good luck everyone in your quest to solving the background history to the medal.

YM is likely to be young men.

Bowls team?

The CYMS covered all the Catholic churches not just one in particular.
On Whit Monday the young men walked under the banner of the CYMS it covered a lot of activities within the Society.

Bowls team?

Actually I think there was a club attached to St John’s in Standishgate where they had meetings if I remember…. Vaguely!

I'll venture T for Trophy .
YMS Billiards Trophy .

It has a Shamrock on both sides, so it's likely to be of Irish origin.

St Patrick himself used the shamrock as a teaching aid to explain The Blessed Trinity. The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit as the three in one God. Thereafter the Shamrock became an emblem in Ireland. Just a thought BT ( Blessed Trinity ) it’s definitely a shield of Catholic origin.

Well it stumped Google !

It's a watch fob.

Is it definitely a b looking closely it could be different letter

bruce almighty see the Comment by: Cyril on 11th August 2022 at 12:08, he mentioned those Shamrock leaves and that got me thinking

in Irish lore the three Shamrock leaves represent Faith, Hope and Love, a fourth leaf would signify Luck, but isn't shown. I would say all sporting team members would then have played honestly and won games by using their talents and not by relying on luck or maybe it was presented to honour some charitable or considerate act towards others or another

could it be presumed to be a watch fob james hanson when the dimensions of the medal aren't made known? but then again if small enough it may well have been, or even from a set of rosary prayer beads.

Batchelor of theology

Has anyone noticed the belt buckle? Could that have some significance? Although, these were produced in their millions and sold to both large and small organisations for various uses. What individualises this one is the engraving. Can anyone see what is engraved onto the shield? Wind? A.U?

BT is a religious studies degree it obvious this medal was well loved ,st Joseph's upholland was training college may be it was awarded there

Maybe these were awarded when studying for the Priesthood and passing all the Theology exams.

Ron,I presume it is not engraved on the back but if you can give the name of the person who it was presented to it may give someone a clue.

Think your right veronica st Joseph's was a colledge for young men taking religious studies

It was your comment Tom that made me think of the Priesthood training at Upholland. I can’t think of a medal being struck for a Billiards Trophy or any other sports ie Rugby even - it would be brilliant if the mystery could be solved. You would think there would be a name on the back of the medal.

In the first post it says it belonged to a ww members grandfather so he most know his name !

Ron,I presume it is not engraved on the back but if you can give the name of the person who it was presented to it may give someone a clue.

Veronica - look at : Wigan Album, Sports - St Mary's Football Team, Ince -
a number of medals struck for members of the teams. I expect a batch were bought at a time, and engraved as required each year. I would hope there would be a name on the back.
It's highly unlikely a medal would be awarded to priests in training for their attainments. The initials for theology degrees are B Th and M Th.

Yes you are right of course Rev. David - you should know. Back to the Billiard Table then….
Sorry Tom I thought we had nearly cracked It! :o)). Having said that at school there was a big Plaque/Shield with all the swimming teams engraved on it who had won it through the years. But I suppose there’s a difference with that and the above.

Veronica - some of the St Mary's football pics show the teams with trophies they've won - the team's name would be engraved on the trophy - and the players who won it would get an engraved medal recording their part in the victory.

I looked at the medals Rev. David looks like I’ll have to eat my words! There’s quite a few medals struck at St Mary’s. Mind you I went to an all girl’s school so I never saw anything like those medals or the one above. Apart from the Shield for swimming against other schools in the Wigan area.

Stick with Tom veronica it's a religious award like we said the rev s mistaken!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. The medal was 'Won by AD', Alfred Darbyshire, my grandfather's younger brother in his early 20's. The family lived off Wallgate (south of the railway) so St Josephs on Carolyn Street. Census info suggests he was a bootmaker, so not a priest. My money is on 'billiards team' at the moment, there was an active league and the society had around 120 members at the time. The medal is 9ct gold about 35x25mm. Regards, Andrew