1918 sports meeting medal

[ruthpbloom]

My neighbour's father was awarded a medal for winning the 5 mile race at the Army Headquarters Sports Meeting on 4 Aug 1918.

Has anyone ever seen other medals from this event?

Does anyone know anything about the event? August 4th 1918 was the 4th anniversary of the declaration of war, and according to an article in The Times dated 5th August 1918 services wre held to commemorate the war dead. Seems a strange date for a sports meeting?

[high wood]

There seems to be something slightly odd about this sports medal as M2/105587 Walter J Alwen's medals have the rank, Private, impressed on them according to his medal index card. This would be the rank that he held when the war officially ended and he could have gone on to become a Serjeant after the war.

The second strange thing is that the unit is described as R.A.S.C. on a medal dated 1918. The "Royal" was not added until after the war had ended; 1920 if I remember correctly. It is of course possible that when he won the medal it was awarded the medal it was "unimpressed" and he had it engraved when he returned home to England.

Brigade, Divisional and Army sports were held during the war to keep up the morale and build esprit de corps. I would imagine that they were held in Germany by the British troops occupying Cologne in the early 1920's.

[ruthpbloom]

There seems to be something slightly odd about this sports medal as M2/105587 Walter J Alwen's medals have the rank, Private, impressed on them according to his medal index card. This would be the rank that he held when the war officially ended and he could have gone on to become a Serjeant after the war.

The second strange thing is that the unit is described as R.A.S.C. on a medal dated 1918. The "Royal" was not added until after the war had ended; 1920 if I remember correctly. It is of course possible that when he won the medal it was awarded the medal it was "unimpressed" and he had it engraved when he returned home to England.

Brigade, Divisional and Army sports were held during the war to keep up the morale and build esprit de corps. I would imagine that they were held in Germany by the British troops occupying Cologne in the early 1920's.

Thank you for your response and apologies for my delayed acknowledgement - I've been away. According to Walter's medal ROLL, he was a/sgt, so I guess his medals were inscribed 'private' as this was his substantive rank. The date of the sports meeting was Aug 4 1918, according to the medal, and as far as I know Walter was only ever in France, so it will have to remain a mystery! I'm interested in what you say about the 'R' ASC, and I guess that it's possible Walter had the medal engraved 'after the event'.

Many thanks for your reply!

Ruth

[Terry_Reeves]

Ruth

The ASC received the "Royal" prefix in November 1918.

TR