187 private C Munday 25th battalion AIF

[Guest FARVES]

Hello all,

I am trying to locate my great grandfather's Victory and BWM, I have his 1914/15 star so any info or help will be appreciated. He left the UK for health reasons to go to Australia before the war and my grandmother told me that he thought he could get back to blighty if he joined the army! Well this idea got him to Gallipoli and again his health was affected and he ended up in Egypt and nearly died in hospital! Then he went off to France and somehow survived the war ( gran said he had been gassed twice but nothing shows about this on his army records ) only to get back to UK and die of flu in Fovant in 1919!

One thing that makes me wonder, why can I go online and look up Australian army records for WW1 with a few clicks but if I want to research family in the British army in ww1I have to pay?

Thanks

[Jim Strawbridge]

One thing that makes me wonder, why can I go online and look up Australian army records for WW1 with a few clicks but if I want to research family in the British army in ww1I have to pay?

It's the world we live in, I am afraid. I am not sure if it is the Government or the National Archive who decided on charging for internet access (free if you visit in person) but the culture over here is that those that use it should contribute towards the cost. I can't fault the principal - even some cathedrals seek admittance fees over here. But I wonder how much the NA actually raises in these small amounts when netted out against the cost of collection.

[Waddell]

Paul,

We are lucky down here that the digitisation by the Australian National Archives of the First World War A.I.F service records were a gift to the nation. The Second World War records have not been digitised and we are in the same situation as you where we have to pay a not unreasonable cost for copies.

Scott

[Blackblue]

Paul,

The medals along with his Death Plaque and scroll seem to have been issued to his father in the UK. Have you tried all the family? Often surprising what people have squirrelled away.

Rgds

Tim D

[frev]

The medals along with his Death Plaque and scroll seem to have been issued to his father in the UK.

To his wife actually!

But I agree with Tim, that they're more than likely to have ended up somewhere in the family.

Although, having said that - there are none of the usual medal receipts amongst the records, and his wife moved address a couple of times around the times they would have been sent, and they would have been sent separately - so......

Good luck in your search, Frev

PS - Probably the majority of the soldiers received some contact with gas during their time on the WF - but it was only mentioned in their records if they were bad enough to be hospitalized. My Grandfather apparently had to swallow a foul-smelling, black medicine for the rest of his life to alleviate problems caused by the gas - yet there's no mention in his records either.