coin inscribed with soldiers details

[Guest Adam Daubney]

Hi All,

I'm after some help tracing a soldier, whose details can be seen etched onto a penny coin recently discovered.

The details are as follows:

G.A. FIRTH

37078

WES

2 LANC FUS

All i've got is that it is of Private George A Firth of the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers. Does anyone else have any more information?

Thanks

Adam

[Kath]

Here's details of his MIC, National Archives, Documents OnLine:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...&resultcount=66

£3.50 to see

Medal card of Firth, George A

Corps Regiment No Rank

Lancashire Fusiliers 37078 Private

Date 1914-1920

Catalogue reference WO 372/7

Dept Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies

Series War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War

Piece Everitt H - Gibson A

Image contains 1 medal card of many for this collection.

Kath.

[SteveE]

I'm after some help tracing a soldier, whose details can be seen etched onto a penny coin recently discovered.

Is it a penny coin or could it be an identity disc?

If it's an identity disc (or it's a penny doubling up as one) then WES could be his religion i.e. Wesleyan.

Regards

Steve

[Guest Adam Daubney]

Hi Steve,

It is a penny doubling up as an identity disc. It has two rivet holes around the perimeter where I presume it was suspended or attached.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Whilst 1d Sized it doesn't appear to be a British Penny,more likely a Napoleon III Dix Centimes Coin as these were a Favourite to "Convert" to ID Discs & were readily available to Men in France.

The similar one below is Naval.

[Guest Adam Daubney]

Thanks very much for the info Harry ~ thats an interesting parallel.

Now that you mention it, i can just make out ]865[ under the head, which would be 1865 and pertaining to Nap' III.

[Guest Adam Daubney]

I've downloaded his medal record, but it makes no sense to me. Can anyone help?

[swizz]

That's really interesting - perhaps I am very poorly informed but I have never seen a coin doubling as an ID disc. Now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense - I suppose if you lost yours or needed an extra one for some reason, you would replace it with something which you had to hand. Thanks for posting about this - it has made me think!

Swizz

[9th Black Watch]

Something similar using 1917 Indian Rupees.

ID disc and bracelet to 50399 Pte A. Hunter, H.L.I.

Derek

[SteveE]

Adam

The MIC details that George A Firth served as a Private in the Lancashire Fusiliers with a service number of 37078.

The lack of entries in the 'Theatre of War' and 'Date of Entry' boxes suggests he first went overseas after 1st January 1916.

The reference H/1/109 B23 Page 4640 is the Army Medal office reference to his entry in the actual Medal Roll which is held at the NA, Kew. You'll need to go to Kew to view it though. The reference can be translated into the relevant WO329/XXXX series of numbers using the books available at Kew.

The additional details you would get from the Roll would be the battalion/s he served with and possibly the dates he served overseas with them.

Hope this helps

Steve

[Guest Adam Daubney]

Thanks Steve, thats very helpful. We're quite keen to see if any relations are still alive who might want the object back.