Campaign medals

[Adam Llewellyn]

Good day all,

If a person was entitled to a trio, would the Star have been sent separately to the pair?

Regards. Llew.

[dycer]

Llew,

As I have a letter,issued to a 1914 Star casualty's Father,containing a tear-off certificate to acknowledge its receipt I would say, yes,however, as no such letter survives for his other casualty Son's 1914 Star I cannot confirm that they were all sent individually.

Main gist of letter

"I am directed to transmit to you the accompanying "1914 Star" which would have been conferred upon-----had he lived.It is now sent to you in memory of his services with the British Expeditionary Force employed in France and Belgium between the outbreak of war and midnight,22nd/23rd November 1914.

I am to request that you will be so good as to acknowledge the receipt of the decoration on the attached form,which is to be returned to the above address."

George

[Adam Llewellyn]

Hello George,

And thanks for the reply. When I've been lucky enough to get service records for certain men, and there have been medal receipts within them, there does seem to be a separate receipt for the star and a pair, if the man was entitled to a trio. I had thought that this could be down to there being a star roll and a separate roll for the pair, but was trying to get some idea on whether the trio would have been all together when received.

Regards. Llew.

[Old Owl]

Good day all,

If a person was entitled to a trio, would the Star have been sent separately to the pair?

Regards. Llew.

Hi Llew,

As George has said, this is certainly true for the 1914 Star as this was issued circa 1919 on its own, the BWM and VM followed but this could be up to two or three years later. I have the medals and plaque and scroll to an officer who was killed on 14th September,1914, his 1914 star was issued on 20/2/19 and his pair on 4/10/21--some two and a half years later. These dates are generally shown on a man's MIC.

On the other hand I believe that the majority of 1914/15 Stars were issued at the same time as the pair--but this is not always the case.

Hope that this helps,

Robert

[Adam Llewellyn]

Hello Robert,

Thanks for the reply. After having a look at the Campaign Medals page on the NA site, and then getting the information on when the individual medals were authorised, I suppose I could have answered my own question. My original question was inspired by me being given a BWM and the original box it was issued in. The man in question was entitled to a trio, but the box only lists the BWM and Victory medal on the front cover, again, I suppose this could all be down to the separate medal rolls.

Regards. Llew.

[dycer]

Llew,

I have copies of the MICs,relating to the Brothers, I mentioned earlier(their Service Papers do not survive).

The one to whom the letter refers,dated 24 February 1920,has two MICs,one for his Star,recording his 1914 TF Number and one for his War and Victory Medal,recording his post 1917 Number.

The other has one MIC,showing his 1914 TF Number(he died 1915) recording the issue of the three Medals.I also have the cardboard box in which they are now contained.The box does not list the Star on the cover.

George

[Ken Lees]

I have looked at hundreds of Other Ranks' service records and it seems the star was always sent out independently of the BWM & Victory medals. The BWM & Victory were sometimes sent out together, but generally they were separate, too.

Ken

[Old Owl]

Apologies, I was referring to officers entitled to a 1914/15 Star Trio when I said that the three medals were generally issued all together. There would have been an accompanying medal issue slip stating: "Sir, I am directed to transmit to you the accompanying--1914-15 Star, British War and Victory Medals--which would have been conferred upon--Captain G.K.Molineux--had he lived,-----" etc. These medals were issued in three seperate boxes each marked on the lid with the deceased officer's rank, surname and initials, on the lid of the box for the star would also be given his regiment--all these details relate directly to the naming impressed on each respective medal.

[Old Owl]

Hello Robert,

Thanks for the reply. After having a look at the Campaign Medals page on the NA site, and then getting the information on when the individual medals were authorised, I suppose I could have answered my own question. My original question was inspired by me being given a BWM and the original box it was issued in. The man in question was entitled to a trio, but the box only lists the BWM and Victory medal on the front cover, again, I suppose this could all be down to the separate medal rolls.

Regards. Llew.

Hi Llew,

From my experience the medals to o/rs were issued with one box for the 1914/15 Star and second box containing both the BWM and VM--although this was probably because the two medals were named and issued from the same source and at the same time. The issue date on the MIC should correspond to this and thus prove it one way or the other.

Robert

[Adam Llewellyn]

George, Robert & Ken,

Thanks again for the input. I thought I'd check the service records for one of the Anstey men who was entitled to a 1914-15 Trio. The Star receipt is dated the 08.03.1921 and the pair receipt is dated some 7 months later 15.10.1921. The man also has a Memorial Scroll & Plaque receipt which doesn't seem to have a signature and date on, but does have a stamped date of 23.10.1919, could be the date infantry records got it back?

The box with the medal does show both the BWM and Victory medal along with the mans name, number and regiment on the front cover.

Regards. Llew.

[Adam Llewellyn]

Just to throw another spanner in the works , but mainly for a point of interest, I've just come accoss this on e bay,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-MEDALS-DEATH-PENNY-LEICESTERSHIRE-REGIMENT_W0QQitemZ220747922262QQcategoryZ13966QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp5197.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7447780354676687383

Clearly showing individual boxes for all 3 medals,

Does anybody have any information on what order the campaign medals where sent out? Would casualties next of kin have been at the top of the list and if so, would it have been as from 1914 onwards?

Sorry to be a pain. Llew.

[Old Owl]

Just to throw another spanner in the works , but mainly for a point of interest, I've just come accoss this on e bay,

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...780354676687383

Clearly showing individual boxes for all 3 medals,

Does anybody have any information on what order the campaign medals where sent out? Would casualties next of kin have been at the top of the list and if so, would it have been as from 1914 onwards?

Sorry to be a pain. Llew.

The first medals issued for WW1 were the 1914 Stars and these were issued circa 1919, ie. not before 1919---or at least not that I am aware. It is quite possible that somebody will be able to quote you exact dates from when the issue commenced for each medal ie. 1914 and 1914/15 Stars and BWM and VM.

I am not sure if there were any priorities as regarding the issue of medals, but I do know that some officer's medals had to be applied for by the next of kin before they could be issued, although I am not quite sure of the criteria surrounding this or indeed how this worked for survivors or other rank casualties. I seem to think that survivors had to apply for their medals, but I'm not certain.

Robert

[punjab612]

I am not sure if there were any priorities as regarding the issue of medals, but I do know that some officer's medals had to be applied for by the next of kin before they could be issued, although I am not quite sure of the criteria surrounding this or indeed how this worked for survivors or other rank casualties. I seem to think that survivors had to apply for their medals, but I'm not certain.

I believe that for ORs ther medals were issued to the survivor or NoK without having to be applied for. Officers had to apply for theirs which may explain why in some cases they were issued at the same date.

Peter

[Adam Llewellyn]

Robert,

I suppose if we work off when each medal was authorised, 1914 Star in 1917, 1914-15 Star in 1918 and the BWM & Victory medal in 1919 and then assume on what production could have been, then the Stars turning up before the pair would make some kind of sense. I'll have to go along with Peter on OR's medals being issued without the need to apply, but am not 100% sure on what the correct procedure would have been.

Regards. Llew.