WW1 Campaign Medals

[Guest stewartsear]

I've just downloaded, from the National Archives website, the Medal Card of my great grandfather from WW1.

Would anyone be able to give me a little bit of help? Under "Roll" on the card it has RFA/175B. I assume the RFB is Royal Field Artillery, what about the rest? then it gives a page number. this is in the row that says "Victory". it then has the same info in the row "British". Does this mean that he was awarded a "Victory" medal & a "British" medal (they were pretty much given to everyone who took part in the war abroad weren't they?).

The thing is, that he was killed during the Battle of the Somme, so what would've happened to these medals? Were they actually given out, or were they posthumously awarded, in which case, were they sent to his family?

On other thing, it gives his date of death as 30-3-17, although on his War Grave his date of death is given as 6-10-16. Which is the most likely to be true?

any help much appreciated

Stewart

[dycer]

Stewart,

Assuming your Grt/Grandfather was not an Officer the Medals you describe would have been automatically sent to his Next of Kin.I know some Medals were sent by registered/recorded delivery but I am not sure if this applied to all or just to the 1914 Stars.

It is more likely that the CWGC is correct but a point to bear in mind is that although the Somme Battle officially ceased in November 1916 we continued to suffer casualties in these Battlefields afterwards.It is ,therefore,possible that your Grt/Grandfather lost his life on the Somme in 1917.

Can you post the Medal Index Card so that the experts can confirm your interpretation?

George

[Guest stewartsear]

Thanks for the reply, here is the medal card

Stewart

[Aurel Sercu]

Stewart,

Soldiers Died in the Great War gives as date of death 6/10/16, like CWGC.

Aurel

[Guest stewartsear]

Thanks Aurel,

Wonder why the date was different on he Medal Card? Maybe the "Soldiers Died in the Great War " info comes from the War Graves though?

Stew

[Aurel Sercu]

Stew,

Maybe Terry will correct me if I am wrong, but I have always known that SDGW and CWGC have their info from different sources.

***

I did some other piece of research with regard to those different dates. But I'm afraid it did not lead to a conclusion.

I checked how many Royal Horse and Field Artillery men fell on both dates (according to SDGW).

- 6 Oct 1916 : 28 other ranks (I didn't check the officers, sorry)

- 30 March 1917 : 12 o.r.

Of course I am not going to say : there were more on 6 Oct 1916, so that date must have been the date your greatgrandfather died.

I had secretly hoped that no Royal Horse and Field Artillery men had fallen on the second date (or in that period). I think that then the conclusion probably would have been : the date of death was 6 Oct 1916.

I must also say that Royal Horse and Field Artillery is not my favourite. Too vague, and not very transparent... (I prefer battalions.)

There is something that could be done now (and which I certainly would do if we were discussing non-RFA) : finding out where these 12 men who fell on 30/03/17 were buried. If it is an area too far from where your ggrandfather is buried... But I must admit : I am not very familiar with Royal Field Artillery...

And another reason : finding out where these 12 men were buried would be rather time-consuming. For the past months the CWGC records on my pc are soooo extremely slow. (Don't know why, other Forumists apparently have no problems with it...)

Aurel

[Terry Denham]

SDGW and CWGC sources of info were different.

The card date may be the date he was declared dead or found after being missing. Perhaps the full info did not reach the MIC clerks.

Or it could be a simple mistake.

[Aurel Sercu]

Terry,

So nice of you to have waited 13 seconds until I had posted my reply !

Otherwise I would have felt slightly ridiculous...

Aurel

[Guest stewartsear]

thanks for your replies. i did think earlier that on his medal card it said "dead" and not "died", so, like terry said, maybe that was the date that they officially decided he was dead, and not the date that he died. another possibility, could be that that was the date that they got round to filling out his medal card and maybe they didn't have the date that he died at hand. do they sound feasible, or shall i shut up?!!!

cheers

stew