Medal's in collection

[mazzie74]

Hi,

That's brilliant.

The Thomas Smail from WWI Gnr in the RFA was my friends' great-grandfather.

On the bind of the British War Medal, it has him as Sgt T Smail RA (not RFA) with the same service number.

The Thomas Smail from WWII was a Sjt in the KOSB.

He was awarded the Military Medal (we have the letter from Buckingham Palace) - and we have found the reason - in Bremen on 23rd April 1945, his platoon was under accurate small arms so he and 2 men sneaked round the back and with grenades and guns killed many of the Germans and captured a 20mm gun and took 20 prisoners.

Does anybody know if the dominos were common with soldiers from WWI or WWII?

Thanks,

Darin.

[t mo]

hi darin
I should have said the medal index card for Thomas does have sgt on it so probably a field promotion for duration of war , my dad was made up like that in ww2 .
so are you saying he was in the regular army from ww1 through ww2 or did he rejoin in 1939
your friends really lucky to have the letter from buck house detailing the reason for the mm as they can be very difficult to trace as hardly any citations were posted in the London gazette .
as to the dommies I would say they look fairly old so ww1 at least can you tell if they are made of bone as they look like it only more modern ones would be some form of man made material  and again really nice things to have .
as Ken says the coins and may be the dommies were liberated on his travels abroad 
regards
trevor

[t mo]

just twigged something are you saying that we are looking at 2 Thomas smails one in ww1 and one in ww2 ? father and son maybe .if so the one for ww2 his service record should be still with the mod have a look here www.veterans-uk.info on there it tells you all about applying and so forth
regards
trevor

[John915]

Good afternoon,

The ribbon on the left and the star go together. The medals for the other two ribbons are not present.

John915

[John915]

Back again,

The trio would look like the 1st pic. If the MM is for the same man then like the 2nd pic, less the bar but with the rosette.

John915

[mazzie74]

Hi,

Thanks for that.

They are indeed 2 different Thomas Smail's (father and son).

The one in WWI was born in Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland in 1888.

After the war he became a policeman in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Thomas Smail from WWII was born in Newcastle in 1919.

In the collection there is:

1914 Star;
British War Medal;
Victory Medal (but this has a different soldiers' name on the edge (T. Johnson). There isn't one with T. Smail.

1939-45 Star
France and Germany Star
Military Medal

Also there is the Defence Medal with George VI on.

The first Thomas died in 1937, so it must be for the second Thomas.

Thanks,

Darin.

[t mo]

the medal with t Johnson on it is the service number and regt  different as well to Thomas smails  .
as I said earlier the service record for the Thomas smail of ww2 can be applied for .
regards
trevor

[mazzie74]

Hi,

Yes - the Johnson is a different service number, but was also RFA.

Thanks,

Darin.