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Remembered Today:

Cpl James Sinclair Urqhart - Salonica


olinda

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Corporal James Sinclair Urquhart, regimental no 14467, The Welsh Borderers, was awarded the MSM and his medal card is stamped "Salonica". Written on the card (although it is not clear) appears to be the word "gallantry". I cannot find the London Gazette record on the online database although the medal card says "Peace Gazette" and Registered Paper 0137/5606.

Can anyone help me with two questions ; 1. Was the MSM ever awarded for gallantry or only for long service ? and 2. How can I find the London Gazette record?.

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Corporal James Sinclair Urquhart, regimental no 14467, The Welsh Borderers, was awarded the MSM and his medal card is stamped "Salonica". Written on the card (although it is not clear) appears to be the word "gallantry". I cannot find the London Gazette record on the online database although the medal card says "Peace Gazette" and Registered Paper 0137/5606.

Can anyone help me with two questions ; 1. Was the MSM ever awarded for gallantry or only for long service ? and 2. How can I find the London Gazette record?.

Have found your man in the London Gazette (Gazette Edition, Issue 31373, 30-May-1919): Suppl. to London Gazette 3rd Jun 1919, p.6955

Cpl. Urquhart

The listing states:

14467 Cpl. Urquhart, J., 11th Bn. (Cardiff)

He is in a group of 4 men from the 11th Welsh Regiment.

Searching the Gazette is a b**ger. Search term used in this case: Cpl. Urquhart

It returned two hits.

Stuart

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The MSM was awarded for gallantry as well as meritourious service, but only in a few hundred cases if my memory serves me right. The gallantry awards were not normally awarded for service in action though. For example, I have just researched a man who was awarded a gallantry MSM for putting out a fire on an ammunition dump and removing wounded men. Sometimes there was more than one gazette entry as well. In my case the citation was found in his company war diary for October 1918 , the incident probably having taken place a couple of months before that. The LG announcement however, did not appear until January 1919 and was repeated again two months later.

It is worth checking the original LG copies which are held at the National Archive (LJ-1)and sometimes larger libraries. Also check the unit war diary and the local newspapers for the man's area to see if there is any mention of it.

Terry Reeves

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For those interested in gallantry MSMs, Major J D Sainsbury's book " For Gallantry in the performance of military duty" ( ISBN 0 906304 06 7) is a good starting point.

I understand that 435 awards of the MSM for gallantry were gazetted betwen 1917 and 1927. Thus making it a scarce award.

Mark

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