MIC's - When did they start?

[cruddy]

Hello,

I had some great help and advice yesterday, but I'm stuck again.

From his WW1 details, it looks as though my Grandad was re-enlisted as a sergeant in the 12th DLI. I suspect he had previous service as a regular soldier and I'm trying to find details.

He does not appear in the 1901 census so he could have been serving abroad at the time. If that is the case, would he have qualified for campaign medal/s? And would there be an MIC, separate from the WW1 MIC (He actually had two issued with surnames slightly different) ?

I've been searching the NA (in my own clumsy fashion) but can't find anything.

One thing that looks odd (but what do I know?) is that an old pay book shows his Date of Attestation as 5.8.14 Age 36. If he had earlier service would this be normal?

If it helps, his details are:

Benjamin CRUDDAS/CRUDDIS (DCM) aka Benjamin Bainbridge CRUDDACE

born 14.10.1877

No. 7202 - 12th Durham LI

I also know that he started in a civvy job (NER) on 16.04.1909

Any help or advice would be appreciated,

Colin

[enoch beard]

me again colin!,

if he served in the boer war he should be on the queen's/king's south africa medal roll

you could try the durham light infantry museum, aykley heads, durham dh1 5tu

phone number-0191 384 2214

i hope this helps

enoch

[cruddy]

Thanks again Enoch,

I'll try the museum, but won't hold my breath. Whenever I've approached them in the past, they just suggested I try the NA.

Do you happen to know if these would be recorded on MIC's?

Colin

[enoch beard]

i don't think there was any medal index cards in the boer war, i have had the same problems with regimental museums!, my black country accent puts them off i think the regimental museum should have the medal rolls for the queens south africa medal, if not you have to go to national archive to check there or find a researcher to do it for you.

prior service (pre 1st world war) was not listed on m.i.cs

sorry i can't be of more help

enoch

[cruddy]

Sometimes even negative answers help, and yours was another one. I now know that the absence of one doesn't mean he wasn't in previous service. That's what it was starting to look like, but now I can keep on digging.

Black country? isn't that the potteries region around Stoke on Trent?

(My geography's useless as well!)

The DLI museum can't have that bias, mine was by email.

Cheers,

Colin

[enoch beard]

colin, the black country 'area' covers the modern day wolverhampton, walsall,dudley and sandwell councils area's. for a layman like you , you could say the area west of birmingham. but don't call anybody from the black country a brummie(its a insult round here )

enoch

[Guest steve@deathpenny]

http://www.militaryresearchon.com would be a good place to start.

[cruddy]

Isn't that where I said? It's only about 1.5 inches from Stoke on my map

Know what you mean about being called Brummies (I think it would be an insult anywhere), it's a bit like me being tagged a Geordie, but that wouldn't be taken as an insult, the Geordies might object though

Got to go now, thanks very much for the help.

Colin

[damien7]

http://www.militaryresearchon.com would be a good place to start.

Thanks for that link, £1.50 for a MIC! will save me a small fortune.

[Paul Reed]

There are no Medal Index Cards for pre-1914. However, in the NA are the Medal Rolls for all medals awarded prior to this. They are on microfilm and in class WO100. Normally they are arranged by regiment. None of the information in them is on-line. Anything held in a regimental museum will only be a copy of this information, as these rolls were used to issue medals and clasps.

[cruddy]

Thanks for the link Steve, it looks exactly what I need.

I'll try the DLI museum first, to see if they can confirm any previous service.

It's now looking as though the old nut-crackers are starting to work again, thanks to you guys

Appreciate the help,

Colin

[Keith_history_buff]

This is an old post... and what I am about to mention is academic right now, but....

The useful resource of the armyservicenumbers posts indicates the time period when he enlisted.

Quote

1311 joined on 14th March 1884
1754 joined on 11th February 1885

7157 joined on 2nd May 1900
7457 joined on 16th April 1901

9688 joined on 6th October 1906
10186 joined on 30th September 1907

https://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2009/06/durham-light-infantry-1st-2nd.html
 

As and when The National Archives at Kew is reopened, you could hire a researcher to consult the following document
WO 67 - War Office: Depot Description Books

Reference:	WO 67/22
Description:	Durham Light Infantry.
Date:	1885-1906

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2212143

There is an example of the description book material in the following thread

The only cavalry regiment with a description book in the WO 67 series for this time period is the "shiny" 10th Hussars.

 

 

[butler]

He is on the roll for the Queens South Africa medal, entitled to bars for Transvaal, South Africa 1901, and South Africa 1902, serving with 1/DurhLI. He was not entitled to the Kings South Africa medal.

 

There is also a record of a B Cruddas DurhLI court martialled at Ypres 24.12.16 

 

This information is from a search on Ancestry