Royal Fusiliers 1916 MMs

[Guest annespendiff]

Hello

I am brand new to this forum, so please forgive me if I get things wrong.

I am researching my two Great Uncles, Joseph James Walker and William Henry Walker. I have their medal cards and Joseph's records. William's appear to be missing. The family story was that they were both decorated on the same day, and William got a Military Medal and Joseph was named in dispatches. I have the card for William's MM.

I have a copy of a war diary for Sep 17 1916, 9th Royal Fusilers, from the 'Trenches at Agny'. The entry reads:

'Very quiet. A few heavy shells fell into DAINVILLE about 11 a.m. A raid was carried out at 8.45 p.m. by the 37th Bgde. Military Medal awarded to Sgt. BARLOW, WH,. Sgt. COOPER, CH., L/Cpl. HEYDON, FL., L/Cpl GF. TAYLOR, CSM WALKER J.J., Pte. BRAGGINTON, P., and Pte. WH.WALKER.'

The Walkers are the ones I am particularly interested in. There is a discrepancy between the family story and the war diary, I can see. I need to find out whether Joseph's award was an MM or MiD. The awards were in the London Gazette on 14th September 1916, so I am assuming the actions they referred to were carried out some time before that, and not in the raid referred to on Sept 17th. Is there any way of telling when these actions were carried out or what the men did? How long after the event did reports of decorations appear in War Diaries?

Anything anyone else can tell me about this entry would be most welcome.

My other purpose is to record these names here so that anyone searching the forums for these men might find this entry and perhaps be prepared to share family stories with me.

Thank you for reading this.

Anne Spendiff

[Stebie9173]

Assuming their numbers were:

1243 Sjt. J. J. Walker, R. Fus.

12462 Pte. W. H. Walker, R. Fus.

(Above as per London Gazette page)

...then they were both awarded the Military Medal.

Link to London Gazette page:

http://www.london-ga...upplements/9005

The deeds for which MMs were awarded were usually 2 to 3 months before the Gazette announcement, though some Gazettes in Sep/Oct/Nov 1916 included back-dated awards back into early 1916, 1915 and even 1914.

My feeling would be is that the M.M. awards were unrelated to the raid, and it is just a coincidence that the MM awards sentence is straight after the raid.

Steve.

[Guest annespendiff]

Dear Steve

Thank you very much - yes, that's them I think. I now have two sources that say MMs for both - the war diary and the London Gazette. So the family story is - well - incomplete. I shall continue to piece together their stories from the stuff I have. They both survived the war and had lives thereafter.

Thanks again

Anne