WW1 250th Tunnelling Company

[Libbyandgwen]

My grandfather (William M Geen) was in the 250th Tunnelling Company and was awarded two medals. we have one of them from which we know his regimental number.  Are there any resources to indicate the reason why he would have been awarded the medal for bravery? Thank you.

[jds1949]

There are a lot of William Greens out there - could you post his regimental number please,

jds1949

[Libbyandgwen]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. He is William Martin Geen, not Green. I can assure you you are not the first person to think it was a typing error! even on the hand written Record awarding him the Military medal it is written as Green and then had the "r" crossed out!
Medal listed in The London Gazette supplement 23rd July 1919.
His regimental number on the medal is 146554 SPR W. GEEN, and the pink record card has in the Corps column, ASC then underneath RE. regimental Number R4/069252. Victory Medal Roll RE/101 B80 page 16925. Again, thank you for your fast response, much appreciated.

[jds1949]

My apologies for misreading the name - another senior moment.

His regular medal card shows both the Victory and British War medals - both as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. [roll ref next to the Victory and then "Do" - ditto - for the BWM]

There is a war diary for his unit at the National Archives:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C7350564

It is unlikely that he will be mentioned by name - most ordinary soldiers were not - but it will tell you what his unit were doing. It has not yet been digitalised but there is a program to digitalise all the diaries in time for the 100th anniversary in 2014.

For the most part I'm afraid commendations for Military Medals no longer exist, your best bet is to search out the local paper at about the same date as the London Gazette reference and hope that they picked up on it and reported in more detail. The county library for his home area should have copies of the local papers of the time. If you live anywhere near London, then they will be available at the British Museum Newspaper Library at Colindale.

Hope that helps a little,

jds1949

[Libbyandgwen]

Thank you again, I have now been onto that link and ordered an estimate to get the records printed.