Medal Rolls

[andy1400]

I have a couple of queries about the medal rolls that I am sure some one can answer for me.

The first is why are the RAF men not on there. I have several but can find none of them.

Also I have come across one or two Canadians on there. Why would some be on and not all.

These are just out of interest.

Regards

Andy

[SteveE]

The first is why are the RAF men not on there. I have several but can find none of them.

Also I have come across one or two Canadians on there. Why would some be on and not all.

Andy

I guess you're talking about the MICs not the rolls themselves but:

1. The Medal Index Cards online are for Army personnel not R.A.F. The R.A.F. details haven't been released online yet and are separate from the Army ones. There are some some MICs etc. with R.F.C./R.A.F. details recorded but this tends to be only when a soldier was transferred to R.F.C./R.A.F. after earning entitlement to one of the Stars with an Army unit. The BWM and Victory Medal is usually issued by the R.A.F.

2. The Canadians tend to be predominantly on the MICs for Gallantry Medal awards (series WO372/23 and 24). I guess there may also be a few details on the MICs where Canadians subsequently transferred to the British Army.

Regards

Steve

[andy1400]

Thanks very much Steve. I feel like a bit of an idiot, but I was looking through them at a quiet point in the middle of the night at work trying to find some of the men on my roll and the AirForce ones were bugging me and the odd appearance of a couple of Canadians sparked my interest.

Cheers for clearing it up.

Regards

Andy

[per ardua per mare per terram]

There were over 300,000 other ranks, let alone officers, who had been/ were in the RAF within the qualification period for the British War and Victory Medals. This includes former members of the RFC and RNAS; many of the latter qualified for medals not recorded either by the MICs or on their RAF service records - because they were issued by the Admiralty! There are 26,417 records for just the search term 'flying' and 27,309 using 'air' in the corps section of the UK National Archives MIC search engine(there is probably a considerable over lap). Even if the two results were added together and one assumed that they were all for seperate individuals, that would be less than 20% of the total. That total is less than the number of other ranks who were in the RNAS! However the figure is much less as those MICs include gallantry awards for example : there are two MICs on the UKNA site for James B McCudden (both of them miss off his T initial), one for his MM and another for his 1914 Star and also two for Hugh Trenchard.

The medal entitlement for RAF other ranks is shown on their service record. These are stored in service number order in AIR 79 at the UK National Archiver, Kew they are not online.