http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_10_2013/post-16323-0-11657900-1381692846.jpgHello, I am new to this forum and would like to get advice on researching an unattributed miniature medal group that I recently obtained. The group includes a Q.S.A. Medal with clasps Johannesburg, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, K.S.A medal 1901-1902, a WWI trio with 1914 star (clasp 5 th Aug. - 22nd Nov. 1914) and MID insignia. The interesting addition is the Medal of Merit of Chile, which according to the ribbon should have been awarded around 1925. Assuming that the man wearing these medals asked permission of the King to wear the foreign decoration, I checked the London Gazette and found 24 persons who asked permission to wear the Medal of Merit of Chile but only one of them was old enough to have earned the South Africa medals. This man was Stanley Herbert Elliott, born in 1877.
At ancestry.co.uk I found that this Elliott was an english engineer. I did not find any military records of him, however his civilian data show that he was in South Africa during the war in the military works department. After that he was employed in Chile at the British owned nitrate mines. Shipping records show that he travelled to the UK on May 23, 1914 and returned to Chile on August 5, 1915.
Could it be that this 37 year old man and father of 3 children fought in 1914 in France and earned an MID? Could this have happened without any trace in the military records?
Any help would much appreciated.