Missing Medal Cards and Medal Rolls?

[george297]

Hello,

I'd be grateful for any information regarding the following scenario:

I have found the CWGC entry for Samuel Rowe, 28698, 13th Bn., East Surrey Regiment who died on 10 October 1918 Age 26, and also his entry from the soldiers' effects register, with his effects to be sent to his correctly named father, Joseph, also noting that he died on the 10th Oct 1918 "whilst P of W Germany". A memorial to Samuel is also inscribed on his parents' gravestone. So then I looked for a medal card and medal rolls, but to no avail, I tried with just surname, just forename, number etc but came up with nothing close.

So I began to wonder if this was just sod's law and his omission was just an accidental error, or whether there was something more to it? So I have come to the seat of enlightenment, and would appreciate any info.

 

Thanks very much,

 

John

 

[jonbem]

 

Hi John

if it helps

found this on https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Search#/3/2/224/0/British and Commonwealth/Military/Rowe

Go to the site, click the image and follow "More information"

regards

Jon

 

 

Edited 20 September , 2018 by jonbem

[george297]

Hello Jon,

 

Thank you for that. It shows he and others from the Battalion, as well as other regiments, were taken at Fleurbaix on the 9th April 1918

Kind regards

 

John

Edited 20 September , 2018 by george297
misspelling

[chaz]

I see from the grave reports he is also he is down on a couple of pages as 18698, he was an exhumation and reburial at Tournai

[RussT]

Having had a good snoop around, I simply can't find his MIC/Medal roll (as you have no doubt already discovered).

 

The "relevant" medal roll pages (complied in October 1920) for men with similar East Surrey service numbers (also all 13th Bn ESR men) show a large batch of men who were previously Middlesex Regiment and who were re-numbered to the East Surreys in surname alphabetical order - see relevant medal roll page below with 28698 Rowe missing.

 

Looking a bit wider, I couldn't find a MIC for 28697 Price although he is evidently on this medal roll page. It turns out his MIC is incorrectly made out with an East Surrey number of 68697 (but with his correct ex Middlesex number of 267395). Thinking perhaps a similar error might have occurred with Rowe's MIC (and medal roll in his case), a search threw up no candidates.

 

The previous page to this medal roll has 28691 John Nicholson missing from it even though he does have a MIC with that number. However, he shows up on a supplementary East Surrey medal roll compiled in January 1921. Nevertheless, as far as I can see Rowe is not on that supplementary medal roll either.

 

I've looked for him under a probable Middlesex number (2673xx or 2674xx) just in case there was a mix up there for some reason - but no luck.

 

Just searching under the name of Samuel Rowe with any unit (and/or miss-transcribed unit) does not throw up any plausible candidates.

 

So unless someone can think a bit outside of the box to find him on some relevant roll (or MIC), it looks like he has simply been missed.

 

Regards

 

Russ

 

 

 

Edited 20 September , 2018 by RussT

[george297]

Chaz,

 

Thank you for that, the reference that Jon sent me showed that Samuel was on a Prisoner List for Gardelegen, which is about 700 klicks from Tournai, although of course Gardelegen might have been the control centre for a number of camps, some of which were nearer Tournai. As the CWGC piece on Tournai says, there was an effort to group the dead in national groups, so that probably explains his last resting place.

 

Russ,

Thanks also to you, I'd found John Price and the bloke next to him in the roll with the number after Samuel's, but then there were a lot of "missing" numbers, but I hadn't thought of the John Nicholson route which was good thinking on your part. I'd spent some hours on this earlier and got nowhere, though I was taken aback by the number of Samuels who served with the East Surreys, so, as you say, it seems he simply got missed out

 

Many thanks for your efforts

 

Regards

 

John

[RussT]

"Missing" ESR numbers 28702 Albert Smith and 28703 Isaac Slowman were both later Labour Corps men so are on the LC medal rolls.

 

Russ