Genealogy Chat

Louise, sounds like he indeed fought... Machinegun corps was formed during the war, and units were attached to divisions but are not necessarily separately identifiable. Unlike the infantry battalions whereby if you know the battalion you will know which division they were with, and thus get the divisional history. Think you will need his service record to discover more. ++ Peter, Yes, they became less generous with the WW2 medals which need to be claimed. My step mother's father did not bother to claim his. After he died she wrote off for his service record, and found that he was entitled to no less than five campaign medals. She proudly has them now. Ian

Thanks Ian I have only had to resurch WW2 medals

i believe he fought with the Motor Machine Gun corps, but got injured by 1916/1917

Peter, WW1 medals were sent to the serviceman or the surviving next of kin. WW2 medals had to be claimed. Ian

I think the medal had to be clamed. If so then he prob did not do that.

Louise, I think due to the vast number of servicemen involved it meant that for a lot of the later entries, only the bare details were given - just the medal entitlement and not much else. That was certainly the case for my own 2 grandfathers who served. Keep in mind it was in an age before computers and much of it was hand written or manually typed. You can try to find his army service record, but only 40 percent chance they survived the Blitz in WW2. They are now held at Kew. For a serviceman to be awarded the BWM and Victory Medals it meant he must have served a minimum time in a theatre of war. That still does not necessarily mean he 'fought' - that would depend on a number of things, such as the battalion he served with. Was it infantry or labour corps or engineers or artillery? Ian

my great grandad was award british & vitory medals - but on the medal index card the theatre of war is left blank why is this? place & date unknown or he didn't fight?