Genealogy Chat

Thank you again for the great advice, I will do.

Dawn

Thank you, it all makes sense now. And that will be what the MM next to his name on his headstone means.

I guess this in itself is proof that he did something special so the family story about how he saved an officers life may still be true.

Next job to try and somehow find out why he got it.

All the best Dawn

Ok I am learning something new today but I am confussed!!!

I bought the cards about two years ago and I had assumed (dangerous I know) that it was one card per medal, so two cards = two medals. Thanks to the 1914-1918 website I now realise that I was wrong.

The first roll card says "Awarded The Military Medal" and is stamped France. This is the one that says date of Gazette and from that date I found him online.
Would this one have been the The British War Medal, 1914-1920??

The second roll card says "Campaign 1914" at the top and is the 2nd type of card with the rubber stamp in the top right corner, but I can't really read it. It does look like there are 3 columns of writting and I think the bottom one is 1914 Star.

If anyone could help me I would really appreciate it because I am so confussed!! I think i'd best look at the Gazette website again.

Thanks

Dawn

Thanks for your advice.

I only have two medal roll cards, one says "The Military Medal" which is the one in the London Gazette (is this the 1914 star?). The other card just says "Campaign 1914" and gives a qualifying date as 8/9/1914.

If I understand you correctly then I might be missing one or possibly two cards.

Many Thanks

Dawn

Hi Janet and Ann,

Thank you once again for your help.

Unfortunately Janet I am not able to get to Kew due to living at other end of country, work, kids etc, but I will get there one day. This is why I have been crossing my fingers and hoping to find more info on Ancestry.

I have a copy of William Victor Lawrence certificate of Transfer to Reserve (my G Aunt has the original) at the end of WW1, which gave me his Regiment East Yorkshire and Regtl no as 8632. He enlisted on 20th Sept 1907. From this I knew he was awarded the 1914 Star and gave me details of the date it was in the London Gazette, which I found online.

I also found him on the National Archives website and bought his two medal cards. All this has the same number 8632. Sorry but I am not very good with military history but the family story goes that he was awarded a medal for saving the life of an officer. I have no idea if there is any truth in this but as he has two surviving daughters who are both getting on I was hoping I might be able to shed some light on this story.

All the best

Dawn

What Ann has said is quite correct about not needing the regimental number when looking for army people at Kew post 1880 and if the name is unusual then that is even better.

But I have to say that searching at Kew for these First W War documents is not as easy as Ancestry as there are so many docs to go through. Could be as many as 30/40 documents and for some reason they seem to duplicate, so there are two enlistment and so on. so out of the 40 docs only about 20 are wanted and this can take some time to research,

My one had 36 docs on one number and another 20 docs on another number and each doc was printed twice, making it much harder.

Janet NLB

As he had a relatively unusual first name, you wouldn't actually need the number to search for him at Kew. You'd know whether any records you found for the name were him, from the personal info given.

Dawn

You do not say whether or not you can get to Kew very easily but if you can, then a search at Kew on the number that you have will be a good start, but you must be prepared for a change of number as it does happen often, and a regimental number is NOT unique to one person. I have researched many soldiers and they all had change of regiments and change of numbers even within the same regiment.

The first W War changes were very common, because many joined the army, as mine did, in the 1880's and went through the Boer Wars in one regiment and then left the army for civilian life and joined up again in 1914 because they wished to fight for their country, to leave again in 1916 to be called up again the same year. This happened a lot, and each time they could and most probably did join a different regiment, so a different number. I have one who was in the Oxford Light Infantry, then the Royal North Lancs and then the Welsh Fusiliers and I was very confused as to whether or not I had the right person each time, but little clues on the papers made me realise that it was the same person, even giving his mother's name when in Welsh Fusiliers and address which I did not know, which was then crossed out in favour of his wife, that was great info for me as it confirmed his mother was still alive in 1916 and living at a different address, although in the same area.

I understand that the burnt records of those who survived and were pensioned are on Ancestry, and it is easier to access these from Ancestry than from Kew, but as has been said already, many were blitzed during the Second World War and were burnt as a result of the Blitz, so you must also be prepared for the fact that your ancestor's records were amongst those that did not survive.

Janet North London Borders

If Lawrence is not on Ancestry, his records may be at Kew.

So I guess that I was actually very lucky to find my G Grandad Shepherd.

I had been told that he served in France during WW1 but on stumbling across this record I discovered that he had been discharged after 86 days for very poor eyesight and never left the UK. I was so pleased when I found it cos it give me information such as height and weight I didn't know.

I thought that I would find my G Grandad Lawrence as I had heard about how he was injured in France and returned home because of his injuries.

Am I likely to be able to find anything else about him? I have his date of birth and regiment number but i'm not sure what to do with it. I got my Grandad's WW2 records which cost me £30 but not sure where to turn next.

Thanks

Dawn

Thank you all for your help and advice.

All the best

Dawn

Ancestry only has the service docs for those discharged to pension - WO 364, Apparently all from this series are on Ancestry, but LOTS have not survived.. The "burnt" documents WO363 - all other surviving service papers for non-officers- are still at Kew. Again, MANY are missing.

Dawn

Regimental Numbers are often changed, especially if regiments are changed. Having done a lot of army research at Kew and on ancestry, you would be surprised at the number of times numbers are changed, and so someone else may well end up with the number you thought was unique to your ancestor.

The most bizarre number change I came across was my father's naval number, which was one number in the book at Kew but assigned to somebody totally different when I tried to access the records and Kew were mystified by this one. I had to get the MOD to sort it for me, only to find the correct number on my sister's birth cert! The moral of that story is get your siblings birth certs as well as your own! Only the ones who took pension are on Ancestry.

Janet North London Borders.

Thanks for that, yes I have his two medal records and today I found him in the London Gazette so I know that was definately his army number but I was just surprised how many others shared it and I thought it was unique to that individual.

I was just hoping I might find more details as I did with my other g grandad.

Dawn

I am trying to find my G Grandad William Victor Lawrence WW1 army records on Ancestry after successfully finding my other G Grandad. I have been unable to find him using his name so thought i would just try his regimental number 8632. I was amazed how many other men appear to have the same number. Is this common practise?

Thanks for any advice

Dawn