WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?

[StanleysChesterton]

This is a cropped image of the medal card of a 2nd Battalion Highland Light Infantry private who had originally been part of the territorial army and I presume left that, but once WW1 started he signed up and trotted off to the Mons.

He was injured at some point, shipped home, recovered and shipped back in 1915.

I know he was at the Mons for sure - he even wrote a (missing) diary as I know his mother in law arranged a reading of it to local school children when he was waiting for another back operation in 1915 and it was in the newspapers. He was injured in the spine by shrapnel when he was bringing his commander back to the safety of the trench.

So, that's the background for any clue as to what these medals are - it's that handwritten part right before the Star that I need help deciphering.

Thanking you in anticipation.

[DavidJP]

Hi,

I believe it says 14, which would therefore mean that he was awarded the 1914 Star.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

David

[StanleysChesterton]

Hi,

I believe it says 14, which would therefore mean that he was awarded the 1914 Star.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

David

Yes it does. Thank you

Every little scrap helps ..... this is my "disappearing grandfather ....." so keen to get any/all knowledge, no matter how small, into my knowledge bank for potential searches.

He lived.... at least another 20 years .... but I will probably never find out when/where he died, but that won't stop me continually looking for ideas/clues and avenues.

EDIT: I've looked into this more and it would appear that this is called the Mons Star - and I think that to get it he'd have had to have been fighting for the whole of the duration 5 August and 22 November 1914 .... which, if that's correct, would mean that he was injured after 22 November. 

One piece of the puzzle I've got is that I know he was injured, I know what sort of injury, I know the hospitals in England he moved to, I know he then went back to the lines after a quickie marriage ... but I've no date of injury yet.

I can probably now narrow it down to between 22 November and the date when I know he was awaiting further surgery and his diary was read to local school children in mid February 1915.

[RRTB]

You're right about the 1914 Star having the restrictions on the dates, and since you are positive that your soldier served at Mons then this would confirm the "14" beside the word 'Star'.

From Wikipedia: "The majority of recipients were officers and men of the pre-war British army, specifically the British Expeditionary Force, also known as the Old Contemptibles, who landed in France soon after the outbreak of the War and who took part in the Retreat from Mons, hence the medal's nickname "Mons Star".

The 1914 Star was never awarded singly. Recipients of this medal also received the British War Medal and Victory Medal, but did not qualify to also receive the very similar 1914–15 Star since no person could receive both Stars."

Also from Wikipedia: "The 1914–15 Star was instituted in December 1918 and was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces who served against the Central European Powers in any theatre of the Great War between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915."

Just thought you might like to know the difference!

RRTB

[StanleysChesterton]

You're right about the 1914 Star having the restrictions on the dates, and since you are positive that your soldier served at Mons then this would confirm the "14" beside the word 'Star'.

From Wikipedia: "The majority of recipients were officers and men of the pre-war British army, specifically the British Expeditionary Force, also known as the Old Contemptibles, who landed in France soon after the outbreak of the War and who took part in the Retreat from Mons, hence the medal's nickname "Mons Star".

The 1914 Star was never awarded singly. Recipients of this medal also received the British War Medal and Victory Medal, but did not qualify to also receive the very similar 1914–15 Star since no person could receive both Stars."

Also from Wikipedia: "The 1914–15 Star was instituted in December 1918 and was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces who served against the Central European Powers in any theatre of the Great War between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915."

Just thought you might like to know the difference!

RRTB

Thanks. I know he was at Mons as I've got a court case printed in the newspaper that headlined as "Mons Man's Marriage" ... a separation order request in 1919.

Also, in February 1915, the reading of abstracts from his diaries to local school children reported in the paper that they were especially "rapt" at the stories of the Retreat.

[MaxD]

The card and its associated Medal Roll entry yields lots more information.

It records the date he entered France 14 August 1914 which is the date the 2 HLI disembarked at Boulogne.  It alao shows he returned his Victory medal in 1923, probably to get his initials properly engraved, there is a note suggesting that on the card.The roll shows he ended the war as a Lance Corporal and that when overseas he served throughout with 2 HLI.

Unfortunately, his service record has not survived the bombing in WW2 but you can download the war diary of the battalion from the National Archives here for £3.50 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7351969 .  It is also on Ancestry if you have a sub.  (Note the diary also has the Connaught Rangers at the start)

Just to clarify the dates.  To qualify for the 1914 Star, he didn't have to have been present from one date to the other, it was sufficient to have been in the theatre of war at some time between the dates so linking the end date with when he was wounded doesn't work!  However, while a war diary does not normally mention other ranks by name, if his wounding was occasioned during some rescue operation, then the diary may well mention it.

maxD

[diplodicus]

The three medals were known to many as "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" who were characters in a cartoon strip published in The Daily Mirror from 1919. The two medals without the 1914 star were known as "Mutt and Jeff".

[StanleysChesterton]

The card and its associated Medal Roll entry yields lots more information.

It records the date he entered France 14 August 1914 which is the date the 2 HLI disembarked at Boulogne.  It alao shows he returned his Victory medal in 1923, probably to get his initials properly engraved, there is a note suggesting that on the card. The roll shows he ended the war as a Lance Corporal and that when overseas he served throughout with 2 HLI.

Unfortunately, his service record has not survived the bombing in WW2 but you can download the war diary of the battalion from the National Archives here for £3.50 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7351969 .  It is also on Ancestry if you have a sub.  (Note the diary also has the Connaught Rangers at the start)

Just to clarify the dates.  To qualify for the 1914 Star, he didn't have to have been present from one date to the other, it was sufficient to have been in the theatre of war at some time between the dates so linking the end date with when he was wounded doesn't work!  However, while a war diary does not normally mention other ranks by name, if his wounding was occasioned during some rescue operation, then the diary may well mention it.

maxD

Thanks... that's more than I knew.  Stuff's dotted all over the place.  I don't know about "war stuff", so have avoided too much interaction with the detail to date, hoping what I'd need to know would "fall into my lap".  I'm scraping round for clues really ...as I'm ultimately trying to find his death (post 1935), so clues as to "how to think" about where he could've ended up and when.

Re the initials - I suspect it wasn't just that he wanted his middle initial to be included on his medal, but that he had a brother whose first name also started with "A", so the family probably insisted on them all using all initials wherever possible to avoid confusion in post/documents.... just a guess.  That seems the most likely reason why somebody would bother to send back a medal for an extra initial.  It should, maybe, also help me track him down ultimately, if that insistence on always using it was used when he died... it narrows the list of possibles from '000s to just a few dozen

I'd been looking for the official diary, but hadn't worked out where to find it, so thanks for saying it's on the National Archives.  I'll put that £3.50 down on the "list of stuff I'd like to get one day".  It's a lot of money if there's nothing in there ... and even if there is it might work out at £1/word

And/or wait for a free ANC weekend that applies to the relevant document.

I managed to get from newspapers that he got his shrapnel wound at Mons carrying his captain to the trench, shrapnel was ¼ inch from his spine.

Skint, not tight   Plus, there are so many documents one could buy you have to prioritise. So many "duds" one could buy ... you need to be assured you're buying the right things, for the right reason.

[StanleysChesterton]

The three medals were known to many as "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred" who were characters in a cartoon strip published in The Daily Mirror from 1919. The two medals without the 1914 star were known as "Mutt and Jeff".

I'd heard Pip/Squeak/Wilfred before - but not Mutt/Jeff!