I emailed Library and Archives Canada and received a quick response with a PDF of his entire war record. And this has added to the confusion. My great-great-grandfather's service officially began on 24 September 1915; he was shipped to England with the 71st Battalion of the CEF on April 1 1916 and arrived on April 11 in Liverpool, where he was transferred to the 51st Battalion of the CEF on June 16. He was discovered to have varicose veins and "neurasthenia", and was ruled to only be fit for garrison duty on November 8 1916. He departed for Canada on October 18 1917, was ruled medically unfit for further service and was discharged on November 15. Now, his discharge certificate describes his conduct as "very good", but on the heading of "Medals", it says "nil". He also signed a voluntary discharge paper where, again, someone has written "nil" under the "Medals" heading (this one dated January 15 1918). This has left me very confused. He was overseas with the CEF for a year and a half, so he should have at least received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. I've heard through family lore that a distant cousin has his medals, and have seen a photo to this effect, but the records I've accessed say he was awarded nothing. How is this possible? Could they have been awarded subsequent to these documents being filed? At war's end perhaps?
The reason I ask is that I had planned on purchasing a pair of replacement medals to be added to a framed photo I have of him, and was going to shell out the extra bit to get unnamed examples.