Military B.E.M. to Dom Jacques RIVET, a French benedictine monk

[Veteran]

Hello

I would love to find the date and text of the London Gazette where the award of a B.E.M. Military Division to Dom Jacques RIVET O.S.B. was published.

The reason for the award is quite official and can be found in Catalogue Reference WO/373/184 on line from Kew.

It reads as follows :

British Empire Medal, Military Division

Corporal Jacques RIVET (3178)

Corps of Engineers, French Army.

"This N.C.O. a benedictine monk in civil life, while a prisonner of war in German hands, worked as medical orderly in the hospital known as Reserve Lazareit Stradroda (?). In this capacity he rendered valuable service to British prisonners of war by loyally co-operating with the British medical staff and by contrbuting to the spiritual and physical needs of the Briish patients. Moreover he used his intimate knowledge of the German language to the great benefit of the prisonners of all nationalities in this hospital".

The medal is known to exist and it is named. That is why I would like to find the date of the possible publication of the award. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to locate this through the 'net;

Considering the very unusual award of a military medal to a monk, I would enjoy putting the story together. Dom Rivet was a very erudite historian who had full mastery of German. He was the French reviewer of papers published in German before the war and it seems he wrote several significant article in the German religious journals.

He must have made himself very useful indeed to receive an award as a prisonner of war from an Allied country. I would expect such official recognition to have been very unusual, and a great credit to the British medical officers who no doubt must have decided to put his name up for it.

Thank you for your kind help. Every bit of it will be gratefully received.

Veteran

P.S. Benedictine monks use the posnominal lettres O.S.B; (Ordo SanctI BenedictI). Would he have been Dom Jacques Rivet O.S..B. , B.E.M. or B.E.M., O.S.B. ?

Edited December 20, 2011 by Veteran

[peter monahan]

O.S.B., B.E.M. I'd say, as a Catlick myself, that his membership in the Order would, to he and his conferes, take precedence over any secular award, degree, etc. he may have earned. In fact, its likely that he would not have used any postnominals except OSB. The President of my old college at the University of Toronto uses "Professor Anne Anderson, csj" - Community [sisters] of St. Joseph, although she is entitled to at least three academic degrees and more likely 4 or 5.

[Veteran]

I am sure you are quite right; It was just an afterthought.

I also hope you were interested by the very unusual circumstances of this award.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Very unusual.... how comman was it to give British awards for service while in captivity? Did guys get them for attemted escapes, or for being on the escapers commitees etc?

[Mervyn Mitton]

Veteran - indeed, a most unusual and interesting award. Should you be able to research it further, then I hope you will post the

full story on this Forum - although, I am sure, that it would be of great interest to our German members.

One thought - perhaps the British Catholic Archbishop may have been consulted - why not contact Westminster Cathedral ? Mervyn

[Veteran]

Thank you for your interesting comments. Up to now there is very little to be found about Dom Rivet.

The first step beyond the Kew paper I reported is finding the possible publication of the BEM in the London Gazette, which I am not sufficiently familiar with to do; My question is also : how do you get to the right date in the Gazette?

I will be happy to feed this item as information comes in.

More soon ?

Best regards to all

Veteran

[Ralph]

Unfortunately British awards to foreign recipients were NOT published in the London Gazette. It could be that the U.K.Central Chancery of Orders may hold details such as presentation date /dispatch date if sent.

Ralph

Edited December 23, 2011 by Ralph

[Veteran]

Thank you very much Ralph.

You probably have saved me a wild-goose chase. After all, the medal exists and the original document can be found at the National Archives. I just wanted to be as complete as possible, so little can be found about this very interesting recipient.

I hope you enjoy a Happy Chrismass Day.

Veteran

Edited December 25, 2011 by Veteran

[Mervyn Mitton]

Veteran - Ralph has given you some good advice - however, I think you have found a subject worthy of further research.

The Church - in my opinion - would be the one of the places to start enquiries. Their archives must hold something to do with the award - also,

the Order that he belonged to.

British HQ for the area the camp was-in would also have been consulted - after all, despite his religious background - he was effectively still one of the Camp staff and therefore , recognition - other then a firing squad - must be unusual for the period ?

I - and again this is a supposition - feel that he probably gave medical help and food to the wounded prisoners. Whatever he did , it earned him the respect of the British Officers' Committeee who would have administered the Prisoners' daily lives. Enough for them to remember his acts and take the matter further. With the turmoil at the end of the War this is unusual in itself.

Good luck with your search - it won't be easy - too much time has passed. Why not try a few letters to main newspapers and also to the main Catholic

paper - could just 'jog' someone's memory ? Mervyn

[Veteran]

Mervyn

Thank you for your useful suggestions. I think I wlll ask the Order of Saint Benedict if they have anything they can communicate about Dom Rivet.

What he really did is well described in the original paper found at Kew. As a French citizen, he would have been called up for military service at the age of 20. The fact that he was a cleric (if he was at that age) making no difference. An he was sent to an Engineers Unit (Regiment or Batallion) to serve the normal stretch.

Able to read and write, with a good level of education, had he not been a monk he would have been sent to Reserve Officers Training School. But he probably declined to do so and served as a lance-corporal. After military service, he was listed a a reservist for the required number of years, during which time war broke out and he was recalled.

In most instances, its was admitted that a cleric could serve as a medic rather than as a combat soldier. That was his status when he was taken a prisonner of war in June 1940 with hundreds of thousands other Frenchmen. His training as a medic brought him to be in that hospital where British soldiers were looked after by a staff of prisoners of war British medical officers. Who must have been very impressed with his personnality and with the services he gave.

What could have been theses services ? The original mention tells this : he gave straighforward medical assistance, as a male nurse, to sick British soldiers. But he must have been a tremendous spiritual (one would say psychological to-day) help to those men - aged 20 to 35 - who saw five years of their lives litterally wasted behind barbed wires. There was no material food for Dom Rivet to give, because there was none available.

He also spoke German fluently which means he may have been respected by the German guards in charge of keeping the prisonners of war. And that he made himself particularly useful in that capacity. Lives were possibly saved in this way.

That must have been absolutely outstanding for an award to be requested for him and indeed given. Other men may have been honored for similar reasons, but I have never heard of one. That was also the reason why I was anxious to find a trace of the award-decision in the Gazette, hoping similar awards would have been recorded at the same time.

The award of a B.E.M. reflects haturally his status as a ranker. Had he been an officer, it would have been an order, I suppose.

Thank you again for your comments and suggestion.

Best regards

Veteran