Medal Index Card

[Swally]

Guys,

I have been over this ground before and am still not sure which Index Card would be my Grandas.

Robert Allan was born 1st of May 1885 in Aberdeen.

He appears on the 1901 Census in Aberdeen as a Tinsmith

I know that he had pre-war service with the Royal Horse Artillery as I have him in a picture in County Kildare Ireland around 1902.

He married my Gran (Mary Alexander) in 1909 in Bo'ness near Falkirk, Scotland, he gave his occupation as a Carter.

His first son Robert was run over and killed on the 17th of September 1914 @ 2hrs 20 pm whilst Robert was away with the B.E.F. (occupation at that time was Van Driver)

I know that he was gassed, shot and also recieved a shrapnel injury, allegedly he recooperated in a hospital in England.

How do I ensure that I have the correct Medal Index Card? or could some kind soul have a dig around for me please?

Allegedly he did not claim his pension as he was appalled at what he went through and what he saw (silly auld man)

He survived by the way.

Ta,

Swally

[Bardess]

Hi Swally

I've had a look around and, unless he had a middle name, I understand the problem you are having. I hope someone will pop along shortly to offer assistance.

Diane

[Swally]

Cheers for the reply Diane,

I have an Index Card for a Robert Allan 31660 RFA but I can't be 100% sure this is him.

It gives a qualifying date of 23rd of the 8th 1914 which would tie in with him being away from home when his son died.

In his pre-war picture he has a "Proficiency Badge" and also a "Gunlayers" badge, so I don't think he would have been a Driver when he returned. There are other Robert Allans but as they don't give an entry date on their MIC I don't know whether they could be him or not.

Ta,

Swally

[Northern Soul]

Sadly the surname "Allan" is not available to look up in the MIC's on Ancestry so I can't really check. However, if the card you have is the only Robert Allan of the artillery who landed in France in 1914 then it's highly likely to be him.

One way to check (although not cast iron but a pretty strong chance) would be to establish when the Service Number 31660 was issued to the RFA - from your own searches you know that he must have enlisted between the 1901 Census and 1902. Contact Paul Nixon through this forum and ask him if he can give you an approximate enlistment date (he is reserching this area). I'm guessing he was called up as a Reservist so his enlistment would therefore have had to have been between August and December, 1902, for him to have had the photo taken in Ireland - his 12 year period of service would have expired after these dates and he would not have been liable for call-up. It wasn't unusual for men to have a photo taken more or less as soon as they got into uniform - they wanted to "show off."

The only other thing I can add is that if this inquiry gives a positive lead then from the date of arrival in France it looks as if he may have been in the 4th Divison. The Medal Index Card you have (for a 1914 Star man) should actually list the brigade he was attached to so you can check wherther this supposition is correct.

Please let us know how you get on.

Best wishes.

Andy.

[Swally]

Andy.

Thanks for that, Paul was very helpful on this matter. He reckons that Boab prob enlisted around 1903 - 04 served his 3 years with the colours then was on Reserve for 9 years, hence he was called up to be part of the BEF.

Swally

[sotonmate]

Swally

I thought that if he didn't have a date into theatre on his MIC it was likely to be after 1915,when they didn't really need to know for 1914-1915 Star issue purposes.

Sotonmate

[Swally]

Sotonmate,

he did have an entry date of 23/8/14

Regards,

Swally