sasplin Posted 14 September , 2012 Share Posted 14 September , 2012 When my grandfather passed away I was given his British War Medal - Pte Thomas Corbett, 2890, Worcestershire Regiment. I was very excited as I'd never been able to find any of his war records. My grandfather's name however was William Collins, so this couldn't be his medal. At first I assumed it may have been a colleague. But recently I noticed an MIC for a William Collins, 2889, 40319 Worcstershire Regiment (1 regimental number down). Could he simply have been mailed the wrong medals? Were numbers issued alphabetically, or simply issued as and when people joined up? Collins and Corbett are very close alphabetically. Were many medals mis-directed? Additionally, I can't verify if 2889, 40319 is my grandfather. All I know was that he was born about 1891 in Droitwich, Worcs. I'm very confused! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBettsMCDCM Posted 14 September , 2012 Share Posted 14 September , 2012 A possibilty is that Corbett was you GFs "Pal" and they swapped War Medals, often wearing their Buddies medal in place of their own in the group, I have seen this on occassion,an Officer wearing his Batmans Victory Medal amongst his own group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasplin Posted 14 September , 2012 Author Share Posted 14 September , 2012 But the chances of them having adjacent regimental numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redbarchetta Posted 14 September , 2012 Share Posted 14 September , 2012 But, being buddies, if they had joined up together, so literally one after the other in the line wouldn't they potentially have been given adjacent numbers? Not always, but quite possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin spof Posted 14 September , 2012 Admin Share Posted 14 September , 2012 But the chances of them having adjacent regimental numbers? Quite good if they were pals before the war and went to the recruiting station together. Army numbering is a black art but as I understand it, recruiting centres were issued blocks of numbers to hand out sequentially so if they were in line together..... This is why brothers are often found to have adjoining numbers too. Glen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redbarchetta Posted 14 September , 2012 Share Posted 14 September , 2012 Track down his Victory Medal - must be somewhere in the family - if that is his, then he was probably not sent the wrong set of medals and Harry's suggestion becomes more likely... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarsA Posted 14 September , 2012 Share Posted 14 September , 2012 It might be worth a try to post on the Worcestershire Regiment Forum, http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/forum/index.php?sid=e91b32715f55fe488d33c6e3e4ed6f0d Perhaps they also have some enlisting information at the regimental archives, they however want a fee for checking. ATB, Lars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasplin Posted 14 September , 2012 Author Share Posted 14 September , 2012 Thanks for the responses guys. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate his Victory Medal - a large family spread across quite a few countries now! There are a number of William Collins' with MICs for the Worcester's, but I think 2889 seems quite likely to be my GF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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