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Military Medal Casualty


geoffri

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Hi Guy's, I am hoping someone can throw light on a Military Medal I have:

The M.M. has the following information on the edge, 889 Sgt T.W.Vickery 232/S.Staff.BDE. R.F.A. - TF

Sergeant 810244 Thomas William Vickery R.F.A. 232nd Brigade, entered theatre of War 05/03/1915 Dvr 889 RFA. Died of wounds 24/04/1917 age 23, buried Duisans British Cemetary, Etrun. Military Medal Gazetted 11/11/1916.

What intrigues me is the naming on this MM. If he was with the 232nd - wouldnt it be usual to have the battery as a prefix i.e. B/232 BDE RFA ? or is there some other explanation? and what does the S denote in 232/S.Staff? I don't believe the 232nd were known as the South Staffs Brigade or am I wrong?

Your opinions would be much appreciated.

I have trawled the web and found that the 232nd Brigade RFA (3rd North Midland) provided one battery (six 18 pdr's) to the 56th Divison which took part in the Arras offensive April - June 1917, the battery being C Battery (6th Staffordshire).

Many thanks

Geoff.

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At the time your man received the MM (Nov 1916) 232nd Brigade, RFA was part of the 46th (North Midland) Divisional Artillery. On 3 Jan 1917 it became an Army Field Artillery Brigade, RFA. As all three of the batteries of the brigade were Stafforshire batteries (i.e. 4th, 5th and 6th Staffordshire Batteries I would guess that the initial 'S' may be a mistake, or could it possibly be a '5' rather than an 'S'? Dick Flory

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Hi Dick and thanks for your input, I agree with you on the fact the the S is most probably an error and possibly could have been a 5, denoting B Battery but, I'm going off intuition here that T.W.Vickery's was part of the the 6th Stafforshire - C Battery, as previously stated the 6th - C Battery were the only battery from the 232nd to be transferred to the 56th Division in preparation for the initial stage of the Battle of Arras, April 1917. Thomas died of wounds on the 24th April 1917 and is buried in Duisans British Cemetery; this cemetery was selected for the 8th Casualty Clearing Station and most of these earlier graves relate to the Battle of Arras, hope you can see where I'm heading, although it's impossible to possitively identify his Battery from the M.M. information, his place of burial identifies Arras as the area of his death and the only Battery present was the 6th Staffordshire. (I suppose the S wil remain a mystery).

At present I have no idea where the rest of the 232nd Brigade were in April 1917 or if Thomas lost his life in some other battle.

Geoff

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Geoff: I don't mean to be a trouble maker but the C/232 Brigade, RFA at the time of the Arras battle in April 1917 was not the same C/232 in 1916 when Sjt. Vickery won his MM.

Sgt Vicery's MM was gazetted on 11 Nov 1916 as is named to him as serving in 232nd Brigade. You indicate that your intuition tells you that he was in C/232, but I think it is much more likely that he was in B/232 (originally 5 Staffordshire Bty, 3 N Midland Bde, RFA TF) and that the 'S' in front of 'Staff' is, or should have been, a '5'. Let me try to explain the reason:

1. An MM gazetted in November 1916 would have actually been earned sometime between July and August 1916. At that time the brigade would have still been 3rd N. Midland Brigade, RFA TF and the batteries were still 4, 5 and 6 Staffordshire Batteries. This is also indicated by the fact that the number on his MM is the pre-1917 three-digit TF number (889) rather than his new late 1916-early 1917 six-digit TF number (810244).

2. On 28 Aug 16 C/232 was broken up with Right Section going to A/232 and Left Section going to B/232 making those to batteries up to six 18-pdrs each. On 27 Oct 16 512 (H) Bty, RFA joined 232 Bde and on 3 Nov 16 it became C (H)/232. C (H)/232 was broken up on 2 Jan 17 with one section joining D (H) 230 and the other section joining D (H)/231. On 3 Jan 17 232 Bde, RFA TF left the 46th Division and became 232 Army Bde, RFA. On the same day C/247 joined the brigade and became C/232 with 18-pdrs. 232 Army Bde, RFA continued to the end of the war with no further change. As you can see from this data, if Sjt Vickery had belonged to C/232 when he performed the act for which he received the MM in July or August 1916 he would not have been in the same C/232 as fought on the Aisne in April 1917 and that C/232 was made up of men from C/247 Brigade, RFA.

3. I am not sure where you found the information that only C/232 was attached to the 56th Division on the Aisne in April 1917 as WO95/5494 (Allocations of Army Brigades RH & RFA) indicates that the entire Brigade (not just C/232) was attached to the 56th Division at that time. 232 Army Brigade supported 14th Division from 19 Mar 17 to 13 Apr 17; 50th Division from 13 Apr 17 to 18 Apr 17; 15th Division from 18 Apr 17 to 29 Apr 17; and 56th Division from 29 Apr 17 to 4 May 17. As Sjt Vickery died of wounds on 24 Apr 17 it would appear that 232 Bde, RFA was supporting 15th Division at that time (15th Division also took part in the Battle of Arras.

Hope all of this makes sense. Gunner 1

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Very comprehensive Dick and I bow to your, obvious, expert knowledge in the Artillery field; I can see the mistake I've made from the comments you make; I have not fully understood the changes made when reforming from Royal Field Artillery to Army Field Artillery Brigade in 1917, and have read the following paragraphs incorrectly:

"and six 18-pounders came from one battery of 232 Army Field Artillery Brigade. This was all under the command of Brigadier-General R.J.G. Elkington CMG DSO, BGRA 56th Division."

"The field artillery detailed to move forward consisted of 281 Brigade RFA, 293 Army Field Artillery Brigade and C Battery of 232 Army Field Artillery Brigade."

The above information taken from 'The Tactical Development of the 56th (London) Division on the Western Front, 1916 - 1918' by Mathew J Brosnan.

I am, or should I say, continue, trying to identify a possible area of T.W.Vickery's death, this being the main reason for my attempt to identify his Battery, I appreciate your input and I'm always happy to be proven wrong while also learning valuable lesson.

Many thanks

Geoff

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  • 4 years later...
Guest JohnVickery

Hello,

We are currently researching our family tree and I believe the military medal awarded to Thomas Vickery is my late uncle. Thomas was the eldest son of Thomas and Sarah Vickery, he was born in Subathu, India. He spent his younger years in Bampton, Devon and his death is commemorated in the window of Bampton church. I hope this information fills in some gaps in the life of Thomas , which you have obviously spent time researching, and which I was very interested to read.

If the medal were to come available we would welcome the opportunity to purchase it and return it to the family.

Thanks and Best Regards

John Vickery

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Hello John and welcome to the forum

If you click on Geoffri's name above his posts, this will bring up a page of information. From this you can see Geoffri has not visited the forum since April 2010.

Your above post may trigger an email alert to him. It is also possible to send a personal message from this page. Using send a message on right hand side of page. I don't think you have had to make a minimum number of posts before sending someone a message.

Good luck

Mandy

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  • 7 months later...

Hi All,

Firstly I have to complement and thank you all on your very detailed knowledge and the freedom with which you share it!

I am also doing some research into family history and am a relative of the late Thomas Vickery and would very much like to make contact with John Vickery (Feb'15 post), not sure how to do this using the Forum though. Can anyone help please?

Many thanks,

Simon

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Hi All,

Firstly I have to complement and thank you all on your very detailed knowledge and the freedom with which you share it!

I am also doing some research into family history and am a relative of the late Thomas Vickery and would very much like to make contact with John Vickery (Feb'15 post), not sure how to do this using the Forum though. Can anyone help please?

Many thanks,

Simon

Hi,

You can click on his name above his posting it will show you his details, scroll down and you will find a personal message box. I believe you will have to have made a minimum number of postings yourself to be able to use this feature.

A "Thanks" in reply will double your number immediately.

Guy.

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