Unidentified Help with British/Chilean medal group

[grandpa]

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.

[paul wood]

More difficult than you think. In the 19th century many British settled in South America and had families there, the children would of then return to England to be educated and many took part in the Britsh wars of the late 19th century and Early 20th century. Nany then returned to South America, often to take over their father's business and would be occaisionally decorated by that country, I know of instances when some returned because they couldn't get on with Britain and later joined the forces of the home of their birth therefore they did not need permission to wear documents and they wouldn't have been gazetted in the UK.

Paul

[grandpa]

Thanks for your response. In this case, Elliott was born and raised in a family in Sussex, worked at railway and shipping companies in the UK and only in 1903 came to Chile. As I said in 1914 he travelled to the UK, returned to Chile in 1915. In 1925 he was back in the UK and died there in 1956. So all the time slots fit with the medals of this group, but I have no proof, that Elliott is the only person to fit this group.

He received the Chilean order “in recognition of valuable services rendered by him in rescuing two Chilean airmen who had been forced to land in the desert.”

[paul wood]

Have you checked with the National Archives to see if he had any Great War service if that is the case and he was out of the war by 1915 then he could be your man, otherwise I'm afraid the trail goes cold.

Paul

[grandpa]

Yes, I checked there. No trace of him in WWI records.

[paddywhack]

whats the name and service number on the ww1 trio?nice group!!!

[grandpa]

I wish I had these data, but it is a miniature group, so not named.