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Remembered Today:

Very little info on medal card, help please


timo67

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Having obtained great granddads medal card I'm now more confused.

The card says MGC/101 B25 but according to the cwgc he was in MGC 106th coy.

Anyone have any ideas??

Thanks

Tim

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What you are quoting is the reference to the medal roll for the medal it is adjacent to. It has nothing to do with his regiment. Dick

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Hi Tim

Can you give us your grandfather's details as there are one or two Machine Gun Corps enthusiasts in amongst the pals and they may be able to help you with more information etc.

Steve

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Thanks for the info, thats cleared that up.

I will post on "Units and formations" with his details to see if any machine gun enthusiasts can help.

Thanks again

Tim

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No further ino to be had from the card I'm afraid, other than the fact that he was entitiled to the British War and Victory Medals, which meant he must have entered a theater or of war sometime after 1915.

Terry Reeves

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Frederick William Sweet was previously 6764 Gloucestershire Regiment (probably 14th Bn) He was born and enlisted in Bristol. I cannot (yet) tell you the date that he transferred to the MGC, but it was probably after May 1916. His MGC Coy would have taken part in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge (15-17/7/1916), fighting for Arrowhead Copse & Maltzhorn Farm (19-30/7/1916) and Falfemont Farm (19-26/8/1916). FW Sweet was killed in action 7/3/1917 at the commencement of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. CWGC entry states that he was 26 yrs of age, son of Fdk Wm Sweet, and husband of Harriet Amelia Hedges (formerly Sweet) of 48 Newfoundland St, St Pauls, Bristol.

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Patesian

I'm impressed. How do you know all this ?

What makes you say 14th Bn ?

Is there any way to find out when he inlisted or when he transfered to MGC ?

Would he have volonteered or been volonteered for the transfer ?

Ideas please :D

Tim

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Nothing magical - all this info is in the public domain. 104/105/106 MG Coys all served from 1916 onwards as the MG element of 35 Division. The 14th Glosters were the only Bn of that Regiment serving in 35 Div. so it's more than likely that men from that Bn who became machine gunners, would have served in either 104/105/106 Coys. Almost all MGC numbers are sequential so, if you could find a researcher willing to access the BWM/VIC medal rolls for the MGC (WO329/1734 - 1771) looking for the number 34476, it should become apparent when he transferred-in. It was almost certainly between 30/1/1916 (when the 14 Glosters arrived in France) and the establishment of 106 Coy MGC on 28/04/1916. Sweet had probably some experience of machine guns whilst in infantry training, explaining his selection for transfer. Volunteering would not have been an option - men were infantry one day, and MGC the next.

As a matter of interest, eight MGC personnel lost their lives on the 7th March 1917, five in France, two in Mespot and one in UK. Of those killed in France, none appear to have been connected with the death of Sweet - he apparently died in a "single-death" incident.

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Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Is it possible that he would have transfered while still in Uk, recieved MG training there then been shipped to France as part of 106th MGC ?

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Yes it is possible, but more likely that he was withdrawn from the line for specialist training at an MGC base depot in France (Wisques near St Omer and later Camiers near Etaples). I forgot to say in the last posting that if you were to follow up on some research by getting a search done of the Company war diary (WO95/2490 at National Archives, Kew) for the date of death, you might uncover a clue about how his death occured. He is unlikely to be mentioned by name, but you might get an entry such as ..."and one man was killed by shellfire..." or something similar.

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Yes, it certainly does exist. If you log-on to National Archives, you will find an area in which the particulars of a number of researchers willing to carry out this kind of work is given. If you don't want to go down that route, e-mail me and I will recommend a reliable guy who would do it for you and would not overcharge.

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Patesian

I'm very tempted to get someone to do the research for me.

I would particularly like to find out when he enlisted, comfirmation of his original Battalion, when he was shipped to France, at what date he transfered to MGC, where 106 MGC was at the time of his death and any action they were involved in up to this date.

Do you think this possible or am I being too greedy :D

Thanks

Tim

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