David26 Posted 5 July , 2019 Share Posted 5 July , 2019 BSM William Thorne (service number 21917) was KIA in the Ypres salient on 26 September 1917 while serving in B/58. His MIC shows that he won the 1914 Star for service as a Sergeant with 30 Bde RFA on 19 August 1914. I have just come across this photo of him which must therefore be pre-war (he appears to be a Bombardier) wearing a medal I cannot identify. It looks a little like the Tibet Medal but the suspender looks too simple and I think there are two clasps, whereas I'm only aware that one was issued with that medal. Is anyone able to identify which medal it might be? Many thanks, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Upton Posted 5 July , 2019 Share Posted 5 July , 2019 Queens South Africa Medal with two clasps, something like: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David26 Posted 5 July , 2019 Author Share Posted 5 July , 2019 Thank you Andrew. That struck me as a possibility but to me the colours didn't look quite right - wouldn't the light and dark shades be the other way round for that? David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardenerbill Posted 5 July , 2019 Share Posted 5 July , 2019 Hi David, That's due to the Orthochromatic film used at the time which produces black and white tones that don't always look right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David26 Posted 5 July , 2019 Author Share Posted 5 July , 2019 12 minutes ago, Gardenerbill said: Hi David, That's due to the Orthochromatic film used at the time which produces black and white tones that don't always look right. Hi Mark, That explains it. Many thanks to both you and Andrew, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBrook Posted 5 July , 2019 Share Posted 5 July , 2019 The Queen's South Africa Medal Roll for 19th Battery Royal Field Artillery lists 21917 Gunner Thorne, W., the medal with two clasps - Tugela Heights and Relief of Ladysmith. In the Remarks Column is stated - Served in 19th Battery, invalided 30.8.00. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David26 Posted 7 July , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 July , 2019 On 05/07/2019 at 17:45, HarryBrook said: The Queen's South Africa Medal Roll for 19th Battery Royal Field Artillery lists 21917 Gunner Thorne, W., the medal with two clasps - Tugela Heights and Relief of Ladysmith. In the Remarks Column is stated - Served in 19th Battery, invalided 30.8.00. That's fantastic. Thank you HarryBrook. Do you happen to know what the term "invalided" means in this context? Given that he appears to have a bombardier's stripe in the photo and was a sergeant in 1914, would I be right to assume it didn't mean that he had been discharged but perhaps just evacuated back to the UK? Thank you again, David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Bach y Sowldiwr Posted 7 July , 2019 Share Posted 7 July , 2019 Further to what Gardenerbill said above: Orthochromatic film isn't really sensitive to red, only to blue and green, so on the film negative, a red cross (as in the union Jack) appears white, and a blue saltire is black. When the negative is printed, the white cross becomes a dak cross, on a pale saltire background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthochromasia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryBrook Posted 7 July , 2019 Share Posted 7 July , 2019 David, My reading of the remark in the medal roll would be evacuated back to the U.K. due to sickness. Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David26 Posted 7 July , 2019 Author Share Posted 7 July , 2019 Harry, Dai Bach, Thank you both - that's really helpful. David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now