Silver War Badge missing?

[Guest Tonish]

My grandfather served in the Royal Irish Rifles throughout the war. He was wounded around late September/October of 1918 and according to the records I have, he was entitled to "one gold braid wound strip" and "four blue chevrons" in addition to the 14-15 star plus the usual other two medals.

However, I thought that an injury entitled the soldier to the Silver War Medal? There is no evidence of this on the medal index card, and I have his other 3 medals in my posession. My other grandfather was also wounded in 1918 and the index card includes the Silver War Badge.

There appears little doubt he was wounded. I've got an x-ray of his wrist dated Oct 1918 with a bullet wound, and I have the records of his disability pension because of it (although this appears to have been bought out in 1920 with a lump sum of £5.00 as it was no longer deemed serious enough an injury for him to continue to receive).

Can anyone offer any explanation?

Many thanks for any help

[SteveE]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

You'll find that the Silver War Badge was indeed issued for wounds, sickness and a number of other reasons but only if the incident was sufficient enough to cause the recipient to be discharged from the service.

If the soldier in question was wounded and returned to service after recovery then he wouldn't be entitled to a Silver War Badge.

If however the wound was bad enough to warrant a discharge from the service, even then he wouldn't receive a badge automatically, but would have to claim it.

Hope this helps.

Steve