I’ve had a copy of my great-grandfather’s WWI medal roll card for a while and have finally decided to pick it apart and see what I can find out from it, since the chances of actually seeing his service record are unlikely (with a large portion of WWI records being destroyed in WWII). That being said, I haven’t actually tried looking for it yet. I’ve managed to work out a few things from his card, using guidance I have found online. And have included it below. But I’m also still short of a few things. Maybe if you recognise something you’ll point it out to me.
1). I’m not sure why someone would be put in for a gallantry award so many years after the fact, and I don’t understand the abbreviations used.
2). It took me a while to find out about this, but it indicates that he is on the ‘Silver War Badge List’, a badge awarded to men invalided out of the army. Which is interesting, considering he claims to have come through it, and even tried to re-enlist in 1939. Although, there is an old story that my great-grandfather was shot in the head, which seems very unlikely.
3). I think this is specifically the ‘1914 Star’. Which was handed out in 1917 for services in France and Flanders between 5/8/14 & 22/11/14. Although it could also be a 1914/1915 Star.
4). The ‘British War Medal 1914-1920’ was handed out for a variety of reasons. They basically had to either have entered a theatre of war, or served overseas between 5/8/1914 and the end of the war (11/11/1918).
5). The ‘Victory Medal 1914-1919’ was given to personnel “who served on the establishment of a unit in an operational theatre” (National Archives), I understand this to mean that their unit was formed in the theatre, but I’m unclear.
6). An ‘X’, I’m not sure if this means anything.
7). A ’29’, this could just be a card number, but I’m unsure.
8). Royal Engineers.
9). I think is another ‘X’.
10). Worcestershire Regiment.
11). This looks like ‘A/Cjt’. I don’t what this means, if anything.
12). I have been looking up the rank of ‘PW’ on a number of sites, but I still can’t figure it out. The Royal Engineers had a ‘Public Works Battalion’, but this clearly isn’t a rank.
13). I think this is just some standard serial number, but would be interested to know what it means.
I hope this encourages other people to look around at their family WWI & WWII records. Even if something just looks like a lot of numbers and symbols, it can still tell you a lot. You’ll have noticed that I didn’t point out ‘regiment numbers’ and ‘roll/page’. That’s because these are quite self-explanatory. To those of you who don’t know, the ‘roll/page’ numbers can be used to look up the medals in the archives. As far as I know these records will explain the reason for the awards. If you think you might be able to suggest something I’ve missed please feel free to comment or tweet me.
Unstuck Monsters 