stephenh Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Is there any on line resource for getting Military Medal citations. I have tried the London Gazette on line but this is proving troublesome. Any other ideas? Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jock Bruce Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Stephen, MM citations were not published in the London Gazette and, as far as I'm aware, there is no central record. A case of digging in war diaries, unit histories, soldiers records and regimental archives, and probably not much chance of finding anything. I've found one citation for about 150 MMs I'm interested in. Jock Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 MM citations were not published in the London Gazette and, as far as I'm aware, there is no central record. I'm pretty sure that, apart from the first few, MM's weren't listed with citations. This, I believe, is proved by the fact Jock has found only 1 of the 150 he's been researching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Dodd Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Citations for MM's were not published in the London Gazette but you can sometimes be lucky and get it in the mans papers or in the case of my Great Great Uncle a type of supplement to the war diaires mentioning that he brought some wounded men to safety from No Man's Land. Conor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Bluestein Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Little known fact: Citations for Canadian MM's ARE available! Not for all, but a good number of them do actually exist. They are available through the National Archives. I have approx. seven Can. MM groups in my collection ALL with the exception of one have citations. Here is an example of one: 63370 Sgt. Henry Garlick, 3rd Battalion (Toronto Regt.) CEF For great gallantry and exceptionally good work on August 14th 1917. He led a patrol of four other ranks into the German line in an endeavor to capture one of the enemy and obtain an identification. He encountered an enemy patrol of nine other ranks which he engaged and drove back in a bomb encounter. He followed them up and waited inside the wire until practically daylight, when he returned to our lines. Sgt. Garlick in successfully attacking a patrol nearly twice as large as his own showed great skill and initiative, and has earned the respect and admiration of all his men. (LG 30389 19.11.17) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffsyeoman Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Similarly with Australians; recommendation paperwork still survives at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra - and that includes unsuccessful ones too. The lack of British MM recommendations remains one the great mysteries to me - and I positively hate telling people who ask me that there is virtually no hope of finding what grandad/great grandad etc was awarded the medal for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Bluestein Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 I have heard Australian records are good! Only ever been successful in finding a British MM citation once, for a member of the R.M.L.I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Little known fact: Citations for Canadian MM's ARE available! Not for all, but a good number of them do actually exist. They are available through the National Archives. David - Thanks for the heads-up on that one . Are the citations available on-line or direct from the NA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Bluestein Posted 23 April , 2003 Share Posted 23 April , 2003 Lee, It has been some time since I searched one down, but I can tell you that I dealt with the "Honours & Awards Dept." of the National Archives in Ottawa. Not sure, and would doubt if they are available on-line, BUT The NA is on the web, and certainly a good place to start. The quality of the citations tend to be very strong, and will have you wondering if you are reading a VC Citation at times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon Bull Posted 24 April , 2003 Share Posted 24 April , 2003 This is unlikely to be of help to you, but it is worth repeating in this thread that the Tank Corps MM (and other medal) citations are all available in a published book called "The Tank Corps Book of Honours". Simon Bull Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 24 April , 2003 Share Posted 24 April , 2003 The lack of British MM recommendations remains one the great mysteries to me... These recommendations did once exist, but they were destroyed in bombing during WW2. The only MM citations that were shown in the London Gazette were for operations in Iraq in c.1921-22. No citations were contained in the first gazette for the initial awards of MMs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephenh Posted 24 April , 2003 Author Share Posted 24 April , 2003 The citation is for the Royal Artillery,any ideas where I can go from here. Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownag Posted 25 April , 2003 Share Posted 25 April , 2003 I've seen a couple of MM citations in a local newspaper. It might be worth trying that if you can get a fiche or microfilm copy of the local paper for your man for the war years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffsyeoman Posted 25 April , 2003 Share Posted 25 April , 2003 Sorry Paul, perhaps didn't make myself too clear. Understand the point 'they were all burnt in the Blitz', but five/ten years ago they said that about Soldiers' records too.. In my heart of hearts, with a soldier's experience of paperwork, the administrative hoops to be leapt through and years of historical research, I really can't believe deep down that every last British MM citation, or official trace of the award process has utterly vanished off the face of the earth (save the rare finding of something in a service record). I make no accusations at anyone or anything, and am probably howling at the moon, but hey, you have to hang on to hope.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hesketh Posted 25 April , 2003 Share Posted 25 April , 2003 Stephen, Have to agree with 'brownag'. I've found that local newspapers are the most likely place (perhaps the only place judging by Paul's comments) to find British citations - though this can be a slow process and by no means certain to produce a result. If you are going to use one of those film readers for old newspapers be prepared for serious optical confusion afterwards - I spent about four hours winding through the hugely boring and 99% useless Derby & Chesterfield Reporter for 1914-late 1915 the other day and I walked out looking like that bloke off the old Charlie Chaplin films with the cross-eyes! Good luck, Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 25 April , 2003 Share Posted 25 April , 2003 I take your point Phil, but have a look at some of the early edns of Stand To! - in one of them is a photo of the casualty records section, showing a room with a vast card index system... each card a record of one soldier who was killed or wounded... all of them were destroyed in the Blitz bombing and I believe they were in the same building as the MM recommendations (and indeed other medal recommendations). As mentioned above local newspapers often reproduced 'citations' and these can be a good source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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