British WW1 medals

[bigjarofwasps]

Okey putting the 1914 & 1914/15 stars aside for a moment.

The BWM was issued by itself to soldiers who served in places like India.

My question is thus did soldiers on home service (Blighty) get the BWM & Victory medal.

My reason for asking is thus...

First World War British Victory Medal named to 317225 Pte. A. E. Dennis. R. W. Fus. Dennis was a Private in the famous Royal Welsh Fusiliers during the First World War.

Pte Dennis number suggests that he was from the 23rd Btn RWF that never left the UK.

Anyone any thoughts?

[Graham Stewart]

While I'm not into the RWF and it's individual battalions, it looks as though your man has been drafted overseas directly from the 23rd Bn,RWF, possibly to another battalion and as such is entitled to a BWM & Victory. You may probably have seen his Medal Index Card, but what you need to see is his Medal Roll Sheet and also run a check for any service records that may have survived.

Medal Index Cards in reality are no more than that, an indexed reference card leading you to the relevent page of the Medal Rolls, where you'll find him listed.

The Medal Rolls themselves only record the unit's serving overseas with and not units served at home, but in many cases you'll find units listed that never served abroad and this is simply because the draft from a Reserve unit has been sent directly to the front and as such the unit you arrive is the one recorded in the Rolls.

Edited September 20, 2009 by Graham Stewart

[Ralph]

For the Army you had to enter a Theatre of War to be awarded the Victory Medal so Home service only would NOT have qualified him for the BWM/VM. It could be that he transferred to another Battalion at some time - the actual medal roll (rather than the MiC) might give an indication of the battalion he served in (WO329 sereis at The National Archives)

[Graham Stewart]

A typical Medal Roll entry - alas though there was another two battalions to show, but I had to cut the file right back to attach it here.

[bigjarofwasps]

A typical Medal Roll entry - alas though there was another two battalions to show, but I had to cut the file right back to attach it here.

Cheers guys, thats a great help.

If I could take this one stage further. I`d like to try and ascertain for what the British War Medal was issued for 1919-1920 other than mine clearance and Russia?

Also did soldiers, who deployed to France during this period as the army of occupation and or battlefield clearance quality for the BWM & Victory medals?

[RWF]

Quite a few chaps from the 23rd Bn were transferred out to France to the Active Service Battalions in early 1918.

Certainly the 4th, 13th & 14th received men from the 23rd Bn.

Richard