Candian DCM? 26302, William Reid Duncan

[barrieduncan]

Hi,

Out of my depth again. Researching a chap called William Reid Duncan, a Coatbridge chap who moved to Canada and joined the CEF in September 1914. Supposedly this man won the DCM in the First World War, but I have no idea how to go about finding it. Were Canadian DCM's posted in the Gazette? I've found the chaps attestation papers from the online archive, and his service number appears to be 26302 - unfortunately I can't figure out what Regiment he joined.

If this was a British chap i'd try and find his DCM medal index card - but don't think thats an option here - does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks in advance

Barrie

[eltoro1960]

Barrie, I noticed that there is a score through on the back , with 2nd Battalion penned out,2nd Batllion what I hear you sayin? Small typo on his service number mate he is 26032, I don't know if the date 22nd January, 1917 rubber stamped on the front is of any significance, discharge date perhaps?

[welshdoc]

It is possible he transfred to a British unit if so this may be him

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

but nothing to do with coatbridge (is Inverurie anything to do with coatbridge?)

and yes I'm sure Canadian DCMs are in the LG I will check now definite an example ( not his)

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

[barrieduncan]

Hi folks,

Sorry about the typo with the number - I have regimental numbers coming out of my ears at the moment!

Found this excellent website, complete with honour rolls, awards rolls and nominal rolls for the entire battalion in the Great War.

http://www.royalmontrealregiment.com/ww1.php

Sgt. William Reid Duncan was in 'E' Company, The Royal Montreal Regiment. I'm sure this is him, although it says on here that he was formerly in the 10th Bn Scottish Rifles, when in actual fact he served 10 years with the 6th Bn Scottish Rifles from 1901 - 1911.

I've been trying some searches on the Gazette, although as usual, i'm either getting thousands of hits or none

Thanks for the effort guys, appreciated.

Barrie

P.S. I'm not sure if that chap could be him or not welshdoc, Inverurie and Coatbridge are pretty far apart.

[dorisj7]

Barrie: Did this man survive the war? I did find a DCM presented to Mrs. Jeannette Duncan of Rockland(which is in Ontario) whose son was killed in action. The award was presented by Brig.-Gen. T. D. Hemming in Kingston, Ontario on Jan.3, 1918. This is probably not your man, you could browse this site for more, I only got through the first four days of over 1000 hits. I searched THE TORONTO WORLD. You can search archive newspapers worldwide. If you register, you have to pay to view, but I was able to view the Toronto World for free to-day.

paper of record

Good Luck

Doris

[welshdoc]

There is no W. R Duncan recorded on the CWGC website and none of the W. Duncans fits either. Furthermore its odd in light of the clear evidence given above but the only obvious W. R. Duncan to get a DCM was an engineer in 1919. So its time for Stebie to sort this one out.

I guess its not him but heres his citation nasty eh

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveVi...;selHonourType=

[jhill]

I don't know if we have a 14th battalion expert lurking here. (The 14th Bn was styled 'The Royal Montreal Regiment'). I have a bit of an interest since one of my relations eventually served with this unit. The bit I have so far goes like this:

The 14th Battalion was formed at Valcartier in late August or early September of 1914. Most of the officers and other ranks were provided by three existing Montreal militia regiments: The 1st Canadian Grenadier Guards, the 3rd Victoria Rifles of Canada, and the 65th Carabiniers de Mont-Royal. The Canadian Expeditionary Force was theoretically independent of the militia, but there was a muddy sort of relationship at first. Many, if not most, of the men were not members of the militia at the outbrerak of the war, but hurriedly joined the militia before being sent to Valcartier.

Your man seems to fit in this category. Judging from the fellows with numbers on either side of his, I would guess he joined the Victoria Rifles, probably at their armoury on Cathcart Street. In fact, the Vics were the biggest contributors to the original 14th Battalion, to the tune of 12 officers and 349 other ranks.

Recruiting in Montreal started on 6th August, 1914, and they moved to Valcartier on the 24th. They embarked for England on the 25th of September, and sailed on the 3rd of October. They arrived in England on the 19th, and at Salibury Plain on the 22nd. They arrived in France on the 16th of February 1915.

The 14th Bn War Diary is a bit dodgy at first. There was, of course, at lot of confusion during the 2nd Ypres period. It would be interesting to investigate whether your man's decoration dated from this period.

Sorry for wasting bandwidth!

[barrieduncan]

Thanks for all the replies folks - appreciate the help.

William survived the war - so nothing to go on there I'm afraid.

Thanks for the run down on the history of the 14th Bn James, very interesting.

I think I'll just have a good trawl through the gazette again and hopefully something will turn up.

Cheers again

Barrie

[Armoured Farmer]

Barrie,

There is a card here: -

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...resultcount=126

I'm at Kew on thursday and will look it up and get the annotated gazette for it if there is a citation.

Cheers

Hugh

[barrieduncan]

Just when I think i'm getting reasonably well versed in these things...

Thanks for flagging this up Hugh, much appreciated.

Barrie

[Armoured Farmer]

[chris.wight]

From Riddle & Mitchell's book on Canadian D.C.M. recipients:

For conspicuous gallantry in taking over command of his platoon after all his seniors had been killed or wounded and handling it with great coolness and courage under very heavy shell fire. He was badly wounded.

According to them, the London Gazette entry was dated August 19, 1916. I tried to find it by searching all the issues around that date but one doesn't show up - Issue 29713 (wish they would hurry up and fix the problems on the site!).

There is no mention of him in R.C. Fetherstonhaugh's battalion history save for listing him in the awards section - he reached the rank of Serjeant.

I am guessing it may have been related to the Battle of Mont Sorrel. The 14th's war diary may give further details.

[barrieduncan]

Thanks for posting this up Chris - just what I was after

Even with a gazette date - I still can't find any mention. Issue 29713 doesn't even appear in the hit list for any of my searches

I've tried searching for gallantry, conduct, distinguished, medal, duncan, canadian etc - still nothing.

Thanks again

Barrie

[chris.wight]

Barrie, the London Gazette site has been having problems ever since they added all those other Gazette issues. It used to be if you went to the address line and changed the issue number there that it would take you the issue you wanted. I did that and all I got was an error message. So it appears Issue 29713 and anything in it will not be accessible until the link to it is fixed.

[Armoured Farmer]

Barrie,

I can't add much to what has come before. I did check WO 391/4, the DCM Register for an annotated version of his citation. There are only a small number of Canadians on that date and he is not one of them. I still have not seen page 8246, so I'll check it next time I'm in Birmingham Library and will re-check Wo391/4 next time I'm at Kew.

Cheers

Hugh