Naval Records and Medal entitlements

[Rory Reynolds]

Hi all

Not sure if this is the right spot for this post but here goes. I have a number of LSGC medals to the R.F.R.and the R.N.R. My problem is that, unlike soldiers who served on terra firma, there don't appear to be M.I.C's to Naval chaps in the Archives.

Logic tells me (and a few R.N. Trios that I possess) that my LSGC recipients would have been entitled to the normal WWI medals as well. How does one pick this up from the records though?

Please shed some light on this.

Rory

[james_harvey]

RFR records are on line just typr the sailors number into the national archives website link and you will have his whole record until 1923.

If entilted to LSGC in that period then it would have traced medal on his record.

Kind REgards

James

[Rory Reynolds]

Hi James

Let me test my understanding please. The RFR records I have downloaded from the NA thusfar provide details of ships sailed in, conduct of the individual etc. They don't indicate the medals that the chap is entitled to, unless I'm missing something. With a soldiers M.I.C. you can see at a glance what medals he got, not so the sailors.

Please clarify what is meant by "If entilted to LSGC in that period then it would have traced medal on his record."

Regards

Rory

[per ardua per mare per terram]

The Royal Navy produced alphabetical medal rolls (these are offline at Kew in ADM 171), without Medal Index Cards and didn't record campaign medals on the service registers.

As a quick rule of thumb: if the man was on an active ship 1914-1915 he received a trio, otherwise they got a pair. If ashore for the entire war he probably got a BWM, the other exception was the RND who got the 1914 Star.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

The service registers that are now online were used to calculate pay and pensions, the LSGC medal affected pay, campaign medals didn't; hence the difference in recording. If "traced medal" or "traced med" and a date appears on a record, that's when the RN LSGC was awarded (but it might be on the card index records that haven't been released yet).

There are medal rolls for some of the LSGCs in the RN medal roll series at Kew, ADM 171 .

[nhclark]

I take it that that's the 14/15 Star in the "trio"? (I've got several men who have all three, and have photographs of their medal roll entries.)

Noel

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Yes sorry I did mean a 1914/15 Star trio. The 1914 Star was only for service ashore, in France and Flanders, so even if a sailor died at sea or escorted the troops to France in 1914 they got the 1914/15 Star.

The sea was a war zone so serving aboard ship at the right time qualified men for the 1914/15 Star.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Have pity on the over worked clerks who compiled these registers. The had about half a million records to write up by hand. They also had a perfectly good medal roll, first done by hand and then printed or typed, all in alphabetical order. Why should they write the medals on these sheets?