Medal Card info please

[hazelnuts104]

 Hi all
Im hoping someone can help me. I have a relations medal card and it shows that he deserted in 1917. On the card it has whereabouts unknown but it also has NW/3/226 and the next figure could be a Y or a 7 and then an 0 .  So does that mean North West and then the other numbers pin point where he was ?
 Anyone with any idea of what/ where  this means ?
  Thank you

[nort]

hi,i'm no expert on interpretting medal cards but if it states 'whereabouts unknown' then that will be all they know.The numbers are probably for index purposes or something like that.

Steve

[Gilly52]

Sorry can't help with decyphering medal card, but interested that your relation deserted in 1917 as my grandfather deserted that year too (May).  It's not easy finding out about deserters - but extremely interesting. Had he been in the war long? Was he in the Tank Corps?  On reading about the conditions the men coped with in the trenches it is a real eye-opener. My GF just disappeared. Probably changed his name etc. Still noted as a deserter in 1922 in the medal roll book at the National Archives. You might be able to find a War diary for his regiment there too, covering the time he deserted. Good luck!

[hazelnuts104]

Thanks for both kind replies .  Its really early days with finding out about the man and what happened to him . An older member of my family remembers him being spoken about but thought he was a seaman in the Navy and had died during the war.  I couldnt find him there but then found his medal card for the Royal Sussex and deserting in 1917, I think that regt was deep in the carnage of France then but not sure. Someone very kind has found his records on Ancestry and  she is sending that to me as I dont subscribe.  On there Im told he looks to have been shot and sent back to England to recover so as yet I have no idea if he then returned to duty and deserted  or disappeared into England .More likely he disappeared into the uk.   It looks as if a fair amount of army equipment disappeared at the same time as his desertion. He packed a lot of life in those short years as he was born in 1898 but most of his life after he deserted would have been spent looking over his shoulder.  A young man and I hope he wasnt too much of a rogue but had seen too much of suffering and couldnt return to more. Im told on his service record that he had previously been a seaman. Much to try and find and fascinating but feel that the NW/3/22670 may have been the map reading of where he disappeared from as it is written just underneath the deserter 1917 whereabouts unknown.
 I may have found him again in Camberwell in 1921 getting married.

[mmm45]

From my reference books on decyphering Medal Index Cards I think that the NW Prefix  is reference to nominal roll of entitlement to the British War and Victory Medals.
The nominals are probably long gone.

WS/ are for the 1914 Star

Ady

[hazelnuts104]

That solves that then thank you . He has the normal medals  for being there, the Victory and the British but would anyone know when they would have been given those medals ?  I had always thought that they would have been awarded after the war especially the Victory.  Seems strange that a deserter would have been awarded any medals somehow unless they were awarded during the war and in his case before he deserted in 1917 
I just dont know enough !!!

[mmm45]

British War and Victory Medals were issued post war about 1920 The Stars were started to be issued 1918.
Medals were  automatically sent to the last known address.
Can you just confirm it says mentions desertion in his record?

Its strange he was awarded campaign medals they were usually forfeited

Ady

[hazelnuts104]

Yes it says deserter on his medal card and I have that here in front of me and Im told its the same on his service record although I havent seen that as yet. No Stars but the Victory and British.
 As you say I wouldnt have thought as a deserter he would have been eligible for any medals.

[Gilly52]

On the medal card of "my" deserter - Harry - it says "Declared a deserter 15/5/17" and " 14 Star ret'd (deserter) 15/6/17".  It also listed his references for the Victory and British medals. When I checked the medal roll in the National Archives, however, it was written against his name "No medals". 1922 dates are also on both records, so I think that's when the medals were awarded.