Military Medal - Action & Award

[scintilla]

I'm tracing the award of the Military Medal to a F. Nightingale (of Ennis, County Clare). He was a Private serving with 139 Field Ambulance. I found this recorded in the Edinburgh Gazette 13 May 1919. I then looked at the War Diary for the 139th Field Ambulance (on Ancestry) which records that on 28 October 1918;

Under authority delegated by the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, the Corps Commander has awarded the following decorations for gallantry and devotion to duty in action. The Military Medal.
67822 Pte. Nightingale F. is listed along with a Sgt. and 3 other Privates.

I'm wondering is this all I will find? Will there be a record in the diary of the action which prompted the award to these men? If so how long prior to the award would it be, I've been back as far as July without finding anything, is it worth me pursuing it further? Or is there some other record I could look at?

[jess5athome]

Hi, unfortunately citations for the MM are very few and far between, you are correct in thinking that something "could" be in the war diary and it may well be worth a look, however when I researched the war diary for a member of my wife's family it just basically said the same as what was recorded for your man.

Have you thought of looking for an entry regarding the award in the local newspapers of the time, there could well have been a mention in one of the newspapers where he lived.

Frank.

[scintilla]

Thanks for the reply. I have had a look in the local Irish newspapers available at findmypast but there's not much coverage for that time and area. I think there are other Irish newspaper archives,  l'll have to have a look.

[jim1]

Oct. 1918 diary shows 63822 F. Nightingale receiving the MM for gallantry & devotion to duty.
This almost certainly was for the action 30 Sept. - 3 Oct. 1918 known as the 5th. Battle of Ypres or the advance on Flanders.
Nothing stating what his MM was for.

[scintilla]

Thank you for that, it confirms the time frame I have deduced from looking at a report I found in a newspaper local to one of the other men put forwarded for the MM at the same time. A note in a 1918 Hampshire newspaper records this for Private F A Hooper;

A card from Major-General Sidney Lawford reads, "I wish to put on record my appreciation of your devotion to duty which you showed on the night of the 1st-2nd October 1918, in the American-Klitzmolen area. You were of the greatest assistance  to the regimental medical officer in obtaining and guiding bearer parties."

I assume my man, Pte. Nightingale would have been engaged in similar activities.

[jim1]

He was probably one of the bearers. 139 FA were operating from the Hollebeke Chateau area & up to the front line. Much of the ground they were fighting on was un-accessible to any type of transport except (at best) wheeled stretchers & even these had to be brought over duck boards.
The bearers had to travel over rough ground & bring in the wounded while under fire.
All the bearers did this but only a few received the MM so what he did must have been exceptional.

[scintilla]

Reading the war diary I saw that there was an area which was 4000 yards long over which it was impossible to use motor vehicles at night and planks had to be used during daylight. That's over 2 miles evacuating casualties on hand carriages and under fire, just unimaginable.

[jim1]

Unsung heroes. Risked their lives saving others.

[Welford1]

Hello everyone,I hope someone can help me,my great grandad got his British and the victory medal,but trying to find out if he had any mention in dispatches or an MM or anything else,my great grandad John Robert Alcock was in the Middlesex regiment army number 56538 but somehow had his middle name spelt Robt,but he saw action with the royal fusiliers and they spelt his middle name correctly,on his 2 medals says Pte J.R Alcock GS/79037 R.Fus.