Medal cards

[amb]

I'd be happy to email the enhanced photo to you if you are willing to have a go and trying to decipher it. Many thanks again.

[amb]

Sadly my Mary Jamieson was born June 1892 but thanks for checking.

[Blackblue]

Hi Tim

in my post #11 you'll see all 3 were Scottish, as for Archie, he's listed on the SNWM roll "Scottish casualties extracted from English Regiments", so it looks like he's also a Scot.

http://www.snwm.org/...ite/frames.html

Well that shoots down that theory! Perhaps try the 1917 men next? The date is probably more likely to be mistaken than the fact he was from an English family? She could have heard months after his death if she was not in fact listed as the Next of Kin.

Rgds

Tim

[amb]

MJ was Scottish but came down to London and had her first two children in Marylebone and St Pancras districts respectively. She was Presbyterian so possibly was not able to marry into a Catholic family. As I understand it the MM was awarded to soldiers not officers and it puzzles me that if he came from a well-to-do family would he not have been an officer?

[roughdiamond]

I had added this as an edit to my post #25 on page 1, but as things have moved on a bit I've cut it from there and stuck it here, food for thought?

Something strikes me, if she was a WAAC, it may not be inconceivable that they could they have met when he was on Officer training in the UK and she was working where he trained, timescale maybe right, Officer training and conception could have taken place in 1917?

If his Officers records exist and the papers mentioned in ss002d6252's post #18 are hers, then they could be put in the same place at the right time, was he training at "Hare Hall" (amb's post #16) in 1917? Googled Hare Hall and from March 1916 it housed the 15th Officer Training Bn (3rd para after 2nd photo in the link).

http://artistsrifles...org/history.htm

No offence meant amb, but it's possible the children could have had different Fathers.

This is just thinking out loud BTW.

Sam

[amb]

No offence taken, Sam! Anything is possible. Her son boy John would have been conceived around March/Apr 1915, her daughter Mary Joan around Sept/Oct 1917. I have a photo of her as a forewoman in the WAAC taken at Hare Hall and I know the WAACs didn't start up until Jan/Feb 1917. I've no idea when she could have been stationed near Lille though, and as to where the children were at this point is another matter given that she was far away from any family although according to family stories, she'd got some quite influential friends having been involved in the Suffragette movement when she first came to London from Scotland. Looking at photos I have of the two children I feel that they are true siblings but who can say. On the back of the photo of her is written WAAC 2nd Artists Rifles OTC Romford Essex. If she had met someone there who was training to be an officer would he have been eligible for the Military Medal? I understood this to be awarded to the non-officer soldiers? As you may have seen above sadly the army records aren't of my grandmother either by date or place of birth. Thanks for your musings!

[roughdiamond]

If she had met someone there who was training to be an officer would he have been eligible for the Military Medal? I understood this to be awarded to the non-officer soldiers?

amb

If you look at my and Tim's (Blackblue) post's #22, 23 and 25, you'll see we discussed 2nd Lt Archie Cameron of the Border Regt KIA 09/04/18, he had the MM because he had been 16964 Pte then Cpl KOSB before being commissioned.

For a man to be Commissioned from the Ranks, he'd have to attend an Officers training course http://www.1914-1918.net/training_officers.htm that's where I'm making the connection, it's possible they could have been in the same place at the same time, his service records may may make that connection.

His name is Cameron, he has the MM and he died in 1918, he'd have attended an Officers training Course and she worked in a place that trained Officers. There are 2 things that doesn't match the story, you say "he was the eldest son of an old English Catholic family and that he died of wounds in 1918", he's listed on the SNWM which suggests he's Scottish and he's commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial so has no known grave, meaning he's unlikely to have "died of wounds".

Sam

[amb]

Thanks so much to everyone - I'm going with Archie Cameron 16964 KOSB, then 2nd Lt. Border Reg. MM 10/10/1916 d. 9/4/1918. The CWGC site doesn't give any personal info but his record may be available on Ancestry. It would be helpful to find out where he was from, and if he had next-of-kin. Can anyone please assist?