Found: WWI metal pin (?silver)

[Dean1]

Hi,   I had a somewhat bizarre telephone conversation with an elderly sister-in-law a couple of days ago (only the second ever!!!) and she has found a box which contains some effects from my grandfather.    She tells me she has found some rectangular coloured squares joined together!   I think I know what they are - i.e. medal ribbons (not sure of correct terminology here).

She also found a letter asking if he had claimed for his medals???   She couldn't remember where it came from!

She also, extremely  interestingly tells me, she has found what appears to be a silver pin - I think she said with an arrow but it was difficult to get the total gist of the conversation.   I strongly suspect that the person who owned this, i.e. my grandfather, earned it at the School of Musketry.   Does anyone know what the "shooting medal" would have looked like.   He attended in 1918/19/20.   Would the School of Musketry in Hythe have issued such a medal?

Yours intrigued, Sue

 

[km1971]

Hi Sue

Only officers had to claim for WW1 medals. If you post his name and address from the letter, we can look for him in WW1 officer lists. You can also search for him on the NA medal index card site - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/medals.asp - and press search

He will be listed if he is an 'Other Rank' as well. Ancestry provides free access to almost all the medal cards. But the NA search is far better, so you should start with that.

There were other Schools of Musketry. My GF was briefly Adjutant of the one in Hoylake, before going back to the trenches. The silver pin could be a 'sweetheart' badge. A common design was the regimental badge stuck onto an arrow. I take it elderly SIL hasn't got a digital camera?

Ken

[Dean1]

Hi, Thank you for your response.

I do know quite a lot about him and he is possibly "known".   William Foster GC MC DCM MID x2 .................. but he was never a regular "only a reservist"! (I say that with tongue in cheek") and took part when hostilities occurred.    He was a NAAFI (?NAFFI) clerk in ordinary life, first in London and then possible in Wiltshire where he died serving in the Home Guard.    His MIC cards suggest he DID claim his medals - one in particular in 1919/20 possibly 1921 - he is in the USA as a Temp Major at an American Military Mission in New York and he is claiming a medal.   There is an error on his MIC cards/WWI records (all of them) as he is described as Walter George Foster (he is William Foster)   He started  WWI as a CSM Royal (city of London) Fusiliers as far as I can ascertain (records in the "burnt series" I suspect as NA do not have them neither does the MOD)   He was 4th (I think) Battalion RFs for the war, starting in the Somme (injured there also) and then Ypres Salient and injured and never went back to the "front" but to School of Musketry as an Instructor (apparently he was a crack shot) and an Equestrian trainer (into horses all his life - from his father I presume and from his days as a cavalryman in the Boer War - I have these records - his horse fell on him at ?Ladysmith and his lower leg was broken and he was invalided home after three years approx)

He was an instructor at the School of Musketry in Hythe, Kent following injury at St. Elois/Festuberg - in Ypres anyway - not very clued up on the specifics I am afraid but from the RF Diary I think he was hit by machine gun fire - this was to do with craters.    I just thought that the School of Musketry may have issued, not medals, but "sort of badges" to people who had been there (I understand it still exists but cannot find an E-address for it.)   For some senile obscure reason I cannot lay my hands on his reg. no but it was something like 123 .....   Sorry I can give you the exact no. as in middle of sorting out all research for the Foster family and in horrible muddle.

Have to admit I am extremely intrigued by this "silver type of pin thing" as described by my sister in law - I thought she said it was for "shooting" and had an arrow on it - possibly not, it may have had a gun on it.

Would love to have a picture of what it may look like if anyone knows.

Sue

PS The reason the war medal query is so bizarre is because it was "known in the family" that his widow threw away his campaign medals when he was killed in the Home Guard in 1942.

[DeeBoneham]

Please try the archivists at the Imperial War Museum they know all sorts of esoterica!
Dee

[Dean1]

Hi, Thank you for you responding.

I have actually visited the Imperial War Museum and, yes, they do have a file on William Foster but there is very little in it.   I did find a photograph I had never seen but nil else to do with war records or anything else.   The GC list organiser has very little on him also.

Thanks anyway.

Sue

[spof]

Hi, Thank you for your response.

I do know quite a lot about him and he is possibly "known".   William Foster GC MC DCM MID x2 .................. but he was never a regular "only a reservist"! (I say that with tongue in cheek") and took part when hostilities occurred.    He was a NAAFI (?NAFFI) clerk in ordinary life, first in London and then possible in Wiltshire where he died serving in the Home Guard.    His MIC cards suggest he DID claim his medals - one in particular in 1919/20 possibly 1921 - he is in the USA as a Temp Major at an American Military Mission in New York and he is claiming a medal.   There is an error on his MIC cards/WWI records (all of them) as he is described as Walter George Foster (he is William Foster)   He started  WWI as a CSM Royal (city of London) Fusiliers as far as I can ascertain (records in the "burnt series" I suspect as NA do not have them neither does the MOD)   He was 4th (I think) Battalion RFs for the war, starting in the Somme (injured there also) and then Ypres Salient and injured and never went back to the "front" but to School of Musketry as an Instructor (apparently he was a crack shot) and an Equestrian trainer (into horses all his life - from his father I presume and from his days as a cavalryman in the Boer War - I have these records - his horse fell on him at ?Ladysmith and his lower leg was broken and he was invalided home after three years approx)

He was an instructor at the School of Musketry in Hythe, Kent following injury at St. Elois/Festuberg - in Ypres anyway - not very clued up on the specifics I am afraid but from the RF Diary I think he was hit by machine gun fire - this was to do with craters.    I just thought that the School of Musketry may have issued, not medals, but "sort of badges" to people who had been there (I understand it still exists but cannot find an E-address for it.)   For some senile obscure reason I cannot lay my hands on his reg. no but it was something like 123 .....   Sorry I can give you the exact no. as in middle of sorting out all research for the Foster family and in horrible muddle.

Have to admit I am extremely intrigued by this "silver type of pin thing" as described by my sister in law - I thought she said it was for "shooting" and had an arrow on it - possibly not, it may have had a gun on it.

Would love to have a picture of what it may look like if anyone knows.

Sue

PS The reason the war medal query is so bizarre is because it was "known in the family" that his widow threw away his campaign medals when he was killed in the Home Guard in 1942.

Hi Sue

A couple of things stand out...

He started the War as a CSM but in 1920ish, he was a Temp Major in an overseas Mission. That suggests he was commssioned during the war and there should be an entry in the London Gazette as well as him staying on afterwards and his records couldl still be held by MoD. I know you've spoken to MoD but you may not have asked the "right questions"  i.e. CSM Foster rather than as an officer.

Also important to note that as an officer, his service record won't be on A*y.

There should also be lots of mentions of him in the Gazette with that amount of medals. A GC, MC, DCM and 2 MIDs is an amzaing collection. The Great War Forum is very likely to have someone who knows about each medal.

Finally, as Ken says, it could well be a "sweetheart badge"

Glen

[forester]

Sue,

I had a look through the Gazette earlier for the immediate post-war period and found these entries:

Issue 31059  Page 14627  Published 10 Dec 1918
          31105           265                        3 Jan 1919
          21468           9326                      22 July 1919

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/31059/supplements/14627
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/31105/supplements/265
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/31468/supplements/9326

According to the last one, he retired 23/7/19 and retained the rank of Captain.

Phil

[Dean1]

Many thanks to both of you for your comments.

I have copied the Gazette entries, thank you for them.

I am going to try and attach the MIC that I have a copy of.   If I cannot attach (don't seem to be very skilled with attachments) I will try and E-mail it to one of you.    I suspect, and I have great difficulty seeing it, even magnified, that the answer to all of this i.e. whether he claimed his medals is probably on there among the heiroglyphics if I understood them.   Certainly he appears to be claiming one medal on there.

Am writing to sis-in-law re silver pin.

Sue (when I applied for his records from the MOD I did attach the MIC for them so they should have known what it was all about.   I had no idea he received a pension (I presume this is what a gratuity is).   Presumably I can get his pension records?

[forester]

Sue,

Most of the writing on there is clerical speak. iv = issue voucher. EF = Enquiry Form.

It's extremely muddled so I am not going to stick my neck out and attempt to date when each medal was issued, but suffice to say that he received them all. British War and Victory Medals, 1914 Star and Emblems.

A gratuity is a one off payment, as opposed to a regularly paid pension.

Phil