Ralph

An immediate award for Meritorious Services in East Africa. Award announced in the London Gazettedated 3. June 1919. A total of 66 awards made to the K.A.R. of which 60 were for Meritorious Service in East Africa.

There is a set of two books " For Distinguished Conduct in the Field" -a register of the DCM 1920-1992 - compiled by Phillip McDermott and published by John Hayward. It is an alphabetical listing of all DCM recipients with citations ( when extant). There is no summary of Regiments, Theatre, award dates etc though.

JSP 761, Vers4.0 dated December 2014 standardised the naming convention of U.K. medals to Rank, Intitials, Surname, (post nominals if any) then either RN, RM, Regiment, RAF then Service Number. so it would appear that any medals awarded after 2014 would have the number last.

Information on the Forces War record site shows that he was reported in the War Office Casualty list dated 23 June 1916 as having been captured at Kut

Frederick James Challen was awarded the B.E.M. Lg 1.1.1948, as Foreman, North West Railway, Lahore.

His recommendation can be dowloaded from this site ( though a charge is payable for it) https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7403143

The basic format for LG ISM. Entries is surname, christian name(s). E.g. Smith, Donald James i normally find that if an attempt on the full names fails reduce one; if they are relatively unusual christian names just use those. restrict the period of search to the obverse of the medal e.g gv star 1910-1921' gv rpound 1921-1937 etc.

His London Gazette entry is here 29 july 1919 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31478/page/9568

The Gv Star shaped medal was awarded till 1920;after that it became circular so the period to check runs from around 1909 to 1921 - a relatively short time. The award in 1917 would normally indicate a birth year of around 1857 - normal retirement being at 60 and the medal was awarded then.

The only award of an ISM to that name for the relevant period of issue is Charles Stafford, Postman. Link to the LG entry https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30012/page/3403

HI Gordon, Restricted the search to "Murray" which worked as there was a relatively small date span. I think that the reason "Thomas Murray" did not show was that there appears to be a mark over the "s" of Thomas which might have confused the search engine!! Ralph

Very Nice award - see link below https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39979/supplement/5307

Armt = Armament - should be prefixed by a T before the number indicating service in the Armament Artificers section of the AOC - they normally dealt with the repair of Heavy Guns.

Thanks for the replies - I am afraid apart from a name, possible date of discharge and date of death I have nothing else. He served as a civilian with the British Army (starting in 1945) and was awarded a Honorary B.E.M. in 1979 - just wondering what his German Service/awards might have been - and was hoping for a link to a Seniority/Gradation book similar to that found for the British Army to try and narrow himn down - but having looked at the various sites, none of which appear to have an name index I think I would have a snowball's chance in hell of finding anything.....

Is there any possibility of obtaining any service history for a German Officer (Hauptmann) who served in WW2. Do the German Authorities have a scheme similar to the U.K. Freedom of Information Act? Is there anything equivalent to the U.K. Army Lists for the German Heer ? Any info gratefully received.