Author Topic: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?  (Read 2498 times)

Offline StanleysChesterton

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #9 on: Monday 03 April 17 14:57 BST (UK) »

It records the date he entered France 14 August 1914 which is the date the 2 HLI disembarked at Boulogne. 
Working just on this fact from yourself, I can now use the snippets I've gathered elsewhere to see where he was likely to be as there are a lot of bits/bobs online about the group that landed on that date.  Although I had him down as landed then, my notes always have to include the "I guessed" part :)

I know there was a big reception, then a toff visited, then they did training ... then marched to Belgium, arriving on 23rd August.

They had some friendly-fire from their own chaps on 8 September.

So, if I can just work out the date he "dipped out and got shipped off home", I could plot the whole route confidently + toss in bits and bobs from other diaries.

It's a shame his own written diary was lost over the years.... while there's a chance it might still reappear in the next X years, it could equally have ended up in a dustbin from 1920 to 1970!

From the newspaper reports of what was read out from his diary, he mentioned having to look for Germans in haystacks - and one shot at him, but missed, so my chap shot him dead (that's what he told the kids at the school anyway).

----
I then did a bit of digging to find any Captain names, first one that crops up is Whistler.  He copped a shrapnel injury on 16 September, at Aisne, so that's on my list to investigate that incident further to see if "my chap" was injured on that date and if that were the relevant Captain.

But he was back in the field in 19 October, so it could have been a later date, or an interim captain.
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Elizabeth Long/Elizabeth Wilson/Elizabeth Long Wilson, b 1889 Caxton - where are you?
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Seeking: death year/location of Albert Edward Morgan, born Cambridge 1885/86 to Hannah & Edward Morgan of 33 Cambridge Place.
WW1 soldier, service number 8624, 2nd battalion, Highland Light Infantry.

Offline jim1

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #10 on: Monday 03 April 17 15:45 BST (UK) »
As he was wounded there might be a pension record but I need his name & no.
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Offline StanleysChesterton

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #11 on: Monday 03 April 17 16:04 BST (UK) »
As he was wounded there might be a pension record but I need his name & no.
8624, Morgan AE.

I'd assumed pensions were only for the dead/wives/children, so hadn't even considered those!

For reference:
At his injury date he was single.
He married and had a daughter in 1915.
He married the nurse he met while convalescing.

Related to: Lots of people!
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Mostly Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, some Kent and Dorset.
 
Elizabeth Long/Elizabeth Wilson/Elizabeth Long Wilson, b 1889 Caxton - where are you?
- -
Seeking: death year/location of Albert Edward Morgan, born Cambridge 1885/86 to Hannah & Edward Morgan of 33 Cambridge Place.
WW1 soldier, service number 8624, 2nd battalion, Highland Light Infantry.

Offline MaxD

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #12 on: Monday 03 April 17 17:59 BST (UK) »
The war diary gives a good account, particularly of the first days.  His initial experiences are better described as bing involved in the retreat from Mons.  The battalion never actually reached Mons, they reached the village of Parturages to the south west of Mons after hard marching from the coast.  Their first two weeks were, in summary:

Arrived in France 1400 14 August 1914.

Marched eastwards towards the enemy and reached the village of Paturages, south west of Mons and dug in around the village on 24 August at 0230.

Received their first taste of enemy shell fire later that early morning. 14 wounded.   Received orders to retire at 0930.

Retired to the south arriving at St Quentin on 27 August at 2200 and Soissons at 1800 30 August.

This link
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/P%C3%A2turages,+Colfontaine,+Belgium/Pont-sur-Sambre,+France/Barzy-en-Thi%C3%A9rache,+France/Guise,+France/Soissons,+France/@49.8892333,3.036875,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c25a2acc35e499:0xbe6c10b5939384cb!2m2!1d3.8383261!2d50.4048263!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c266c28ec6fae9:0x40af13e81645c70!2m2!1d3.847567!2d50.222336!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c27dd4f786c277:0xcc5f3d60112fc46d!2m2!1d3.74862!2d50.042729!1m5!1m1!1s0x47e82b97168d34e9:0x40af13e8169e870!2m2!1d3.625057!2d49.898014!1m5!1m1!1s0x47e85eb79c9276c1:0x42a89b5db10348eb!2m2!1d3.32342!2d49.376636!3e2
 is to a map which shows the route they took, 138km in 6 days, harried all the time by the advancing enemy.  They crossed the Aisne on 31 August.

Later, the diary does record, on 17 September, the wounding of 2 Lt Whistler. 

On 15 September, in heavy shelling, 60 other ranks were wounded.  There were further casualties
on the 20th.  As is normal, the names of the other ranks are not recorded.  I fear it is unlikely that you will be able to pin - point the day he was wounded.

maxD
I am Zoe Northeast, granddaughter of Maximilian Double.
 
It is with great difficulty I share with you that in the early hours of 07 August 2021, Maximilian passed away unexpectedly but peacefully.

With deep sadness,
Zoe



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Offline StanleysChesterton

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #13 on: Monday 03 April 17 18:18 BST (UK) »

 I fear it is unlikely that you will be able to pin - point the day he was wounded.

maxD
Thank you - you've saved me weeks/months of pointless googling and re-googling various permutations of words that might yield a glimmer of a clue :)

That's great... I had wondered if he'd missed the Mons and just got into the retreat bit.

I'm not war-savvy, having never been interested in even watching war films!  I thought I had nobody in WW1 until I started doing all this family history stuff and they're dotted all over the tree.

In WW1 this soldier lost two brothers and a cousin.  If he'd met with the same fate I'd not be here typing this!

When I started my journey all I had were some remembered small snippets that this man existed - mum was born and he left the country.  First of all I had to get a full name and then build up the whole family and it all matched with the snippets I'd been fed... so it's definitely the right chap.  So then I thought I needed to find out more - and he just "disappeared" until enough records or clues come my way over the coming years for me to finally work out when/where he died.

I felt lucky to get a name to the dirty deed .... and then to get so much from the newspapers that were an exact match to what I'd been told about him .... it seems a shame to hit a dead end... so then I thought I'd find out more about "the war stuff" as I couldn't go foward to discover his end point, I might as well try to delve deeper ... but I was out of my depth.

New Research:

The trouble is - with everything new you learn, something new lands in your lap that needs looking at.  So I looked at his brother's Medal Card - and he, too, has the same set of three medals AND the clasp.  His brother was in a different regiment, joined 8 August and was Killed in Action on 20 April 1915.

It's never ending isn't it!
Related to: Lots of people!
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Mostly Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, some Kent and Dorset.
 
Elizabeth Long/Elizabeth Wilson/Elizabeth Long Wilson, b 1889 Caxton - where are you?
- -
Seeking: death year/location of Albert Edward Morgan, born Cambridge 1885/86 to Hannah & Edward Morgan of 33 Cambridge Place.
WW1 soldier, service number 8624, 2nd battalion, Highland Light Infantry.

Offline diplodicus

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #14 on: Monday 03 April 17 21:04 BST (UK) »
Isn't it awesome that every family was directly affected by the terrible consequences of industrial warfare. Once they were just names on a war memorial and now it's so much more personal.
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Offline Gwil

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #15 on: Monday 03 April 17 22:07 BST (UK) »
Times casualty lists dated 11 11 1914.

List of men admitted to No 1 Eastern General Hospital,Cambridge 1 10 1914 includes  Morgan 8624 A, Highland L I.

Offline StanleysChesterton

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #16 on: Monday 03 April 17 23:06 BST (UK) »
Isn't it awesome that every family was directly affected by the terrible consequences of industrial warfare. Once they were just names on a war memorial and now it's so much more personal.
Yeah. Growing up, old soldiers were "just old blokes in caps" ....

I never knew anybody who was in WW1... at all. None.  Mum never dragged us kicking and screaming to any poppy parades - although she'd always watch it on the telly at home.

As for WW2, to be honest, that's a complete mystery too - it's so hard to get the information, there's no handy "look up list" to see if anybody whose name you know was in it ... my sibling said she thought that "granddad" had been hurt in some way in WW2, but we've no idea how/where etc etc... it's all a big mystery.   I've photos of mum's uncle in a uniform - no idea what he did either.  I've some random photos of young blokes during the wartime, mum couldn't remember who they were... bound to be relevant friends/family... although one's a group of lads diving in the sea (presumably on location) so only one of those is likely to be known to her and the rest were his regimental mates.
Related to: Lots of people!
:)
Mostly Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, some Kent and Dorset.
 
Elizabeth Long/Elizabeth Wilson/Elizabeth Long Wilson, b 1889 Caxton - where are you?
- -
Seeking: death year/location of Albert Edward Morgan, born Cambridge 1885/86 to Hannah & Edward Morgan of 33 Cambridge Place.
WW1 soldier, service number 8624, 2nd battalion, Highland Light Infantry.

Offline StanleysChesterton

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Re: WW1 Medal Card - Which Medals?
« Reply #17 on: Monday 03 April 17 23:09 BST (UK) »
Times casualty lists dated 11 11 1914.

List of men admitted to No 1 Eastern General Hospital,Cambridge 1 10 1914 includes  Morgan 8624 A, Highland L I.
Cheers!  I've never heard of the Times casualty lists before ...

Who'd have thought there was such a thing.

I knew that's the Hospital he'd been at, just not the dates.  After that, in February, he went to Hospital in Scotland for a bigger operation.... then back to war.

1 October is making my guess of injury on 16 September look a bit likely as it'd have taken awhile to get him into a bed and decided what to do with him, then shipped off and back ... and 2 weeks sounds about right to me (purely guessing, of course, like I do).

Thanks for taking the time to look and report back!

*dances* New information!  :)

I just don't like "to bother people" by asking for lookups etc and milking their kindness.  So I rarely ask for things.
Related to: Lots of people!
:)
Mostly Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, some Kent and Dorset.
 
Elizabeth Long/Elizabeth Wilson/Elizabeth Long Wilson, b 1889 Caxton - where are you?
- -
Seeking: death year/location of Albert Edward Morgan, born Cambridge 1885/86 to Hannah & Edward Morgan of 33 Cambridge Place.
WW1 soldier, service number 8624, 2nd battalion, Highland Light Infantry.