Military Medal recipients

[mmm45]

Vicky
Whats the schedule number and gazette date it will narrow down the date of the action he recieved the MM for.

Ady

[v i c k y]

Have a safe trip, Col!

Ady, the schedule number is 87785 and the Gazette date is 9-7-17.

Thanks for anything you can tell me!

Vicky

[mmm45]

Vicky
This gazette covers battles of Arras and Vimy Ridge date ranges Apr to may 1917 also include battle of Scarpe and Bullecourte schedule numbers 87000-90800 so is probably an April award.

Source :Great War medal collectors companion
Ady

[jess5athome]

Hi, This is a thread which I am following avidly, The Military Medal awarded to my wife's Grandfather is not mentioned/Noted on his Medal Index Card, I notice that there is mention of a  "MM Card" on this thread, was there then, a separate medal card for the Military Medal recipients or am I reading it all wrong?
Regards always,
Frank.

[colfi]

Hi Jess

Yes, you have it right, the standard war medals awarded are kept on one micro-fiche/card ( now, I believe, on the data base) and this card is marked with abreviations as to further awards, ie: the MM. My Fathers Micro-fiche had MM* in a small section to the right of the list of his normal WW1 medals awarded. I then went to the MM micro-fiche and confirmed his MM awards. There were just dates of the awards there. I am still searching Diaries for some idea as to why he was awarded the MM, no luck to date though.

Unlike a lot of MM awards, his were gazetted in the Edinburgh gazette of 3 Oct 1916 and 27 Oct 1916, and I could find no mention of them in any of the London Gazette.

He was in the RFA (Royal Field Artillary) and enlisted in Oxford in 1913.

Col

[v i c k y]

Hi Frank,

Any luck?

Two medal cards. I purchased/downloaded both from the National Archives site.

The first, purchased several years ago now, lists Victory and British medals, but not the Military Medal. There's no mention of it. Nothing is given for "Theatre of War first served in" or "Date of entry therein" either, unfortunately.

The Military Medal is on a separate card and includes rank, corps, regimental number, date of Gazette, as well as "Registered Paper" and "Schedule Number", which I believe relates to citation documents that were not preserved, sadly.

P.S. Thanks, Ady! Someone said it was likely to be Arras. I've not been able to find his service records, sadly, but I did find another whose life I'm researching - on Ancestry. I'd love to have the same detail for George, though.

[jess5athome]

Hi vicky, yes, I went on the National Archive site today and found the Military Medal card for William Ridsdal/Ridsdale, as you say there is a "Registered Paper" and "Schedule Number" given.
The "Registered Paper" is what looks to be 6B/121/856 and the "Schedule Number" is 245484, I will have to do a bit of digging to find out what they mean.
Regards always,
Frank.

[mmm45]

Frank
That schedule number just gets him into MM. Gazette number 63 dated 17th June 1919
It's a Western Front award for the October 1918 battles.

Howard Williamson is in process of writing a book specifically on the MM due for release in 2014 it MAY have a little bit more info although most citations went up in the Arnside Street fire.

Ady

[jess5athome]

Hi Ady, many thanks for that, it is a great help.
According to what I have found out, the 41st Batt MGC in which he served were involved in the following engagements around that time:

28Th September - 2ND October 1918, The Battle of Ypres,

14Th October - 19Th October 1918, The Battle of Courtrai,

25Th October 1918, Ooteghem,

That definitely narrows it down for me, many thanks again and my best regards always.

Frank.

ADDED: The award was entered "Notified" in the war diary at Nederbrakel? on the 15Th November 1918 and taking into account that it probably took a couple of weeks to hit the diary I think I'm as close as possible to the date.