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« on: Tuesday 06 November 18 11:55 GMT (UK) »
I am very grateful for your comprehensive replies. I had been pondering the award of medals for service later in WW1 for some time, so am grateful for having this so clearly explained by Philip.
And thank you to Shaun J and Max D for the guidance on Jack's deployment and the likely place where he received the gun shot wounds to his head.
Jack was evacuated on the Hospital Ship St David and then nursed back to health at the Northern General Hospital in Leicester by a lady known to the family as Miss Petrie. She fell in love with him, but Jack was already married, with six children born before the war, and six or seven more after, including my mother in 1929. Miss Petrie, a wealthy woman - whose family recently confirmed the story - stayed in touch and helped Jack's oldest boys and daughter find work in the 1920s. The full story is recorded in the East of London's FHS' Cockney Ancestor #148.
Jack went back to war in 1917 in the Middle East and then to France, disembarking in Marseilles on 11 May 1918. He returned to the Western Front in September 1918, before being discharged at Shorncliffe, Folkestone in January 1919. He never regained full health; pieces of shrapnel continued to emerge from the side of his head for the rest of his days, but was turned down for a pension.
Jack passed away on 1 January 1953, after falling ill during the Great Smog, sadly two years before I was born.
Thanks again
Kevin, now in Chester!