Royal Horse Artillery WW1

[ainslie]

The Tooting connection was the wrong man, a possibility before Eddie delivered the goods.
Alexander may have been promoted to Lieutenant after the armistice, and this would not show on the medal card.  You would need the Gazette or his service record to find the date of promotion.

[EDDIER]

Both photographs were taken when he was still a 2nd Lieutenant (one pip and one band around the cuff). If you have any other photos check for two pips and one band for a Lieutenant.
Eddie

[the pretender]

British Postal Appointment Book Aug 1908 Alexander T Duncan in Stirling appointed as
SC & J(could be a T) Dont know what the acronym stands for. Could be the reason he was transferred to the Signals
Eddie

SC & T stands for Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist, think you are correct in your assumptions and the Telephone/Telegraph experience was in demand.

[John915]

Good evening,

I think if you look closely at his right sleeve, 2nd photo, he has two pips.

John915

[EDDIER]

 Has he only one pip on his shoulder?
Eddie
Forget the above
Have read somewhere its either cuffs or shoulder not both

[John915]

Good evening,

Having looked closely at both photo's again there are acouple of anomaly's.

In photo 1 he is definately a 2nd Lt, 1 pip and one stripe around the cuff. He is not showing any medal ribbons even though the 15 star had been awarded, (medals weren't actually issued until after the war)

In photo 2 he is now a Lt, 2 pips and 1 stripe around the cuff. He is now showing 2 medal ribbons but there should be 3, they don't go far enough across the pocket for 3. So taken post war but when. Cuff rank badges for officers were abolished in 1920 when they moved to the shoulder. All medals had been issued by then and, mostly, applied for by the recipients.

This begs the question, are both photo's actually the same man. It's difficult to tell as photo 1 has been enhanced by someone. Much as the experts do here on rootschat.

John915

[EDDIER]

His medal card pages has a notation " EF9 rcvd 17/12/22" which I am advised is the document officers used to apply for their medals. Also a notation against the
Victory,BWM and 15 Star "IV.X/4647 df 1/2/23. EF/1/4968
Would this indicate that he would not have had his medals and ribbons until early 1923?
Eddie

[km1971]

IV.X/4647 df 1/2/23. EF/1/4968

Hi Eddie

Should be IV X/4647 dd 1/2/23. EF/1/4968 where IV is Issue Voucher. X/4647 is the reference of the issue voucher. I have been researching IV and I do not believe that any examples survive. But using something like the Silver War Badge records you can see that each IV contained circa 50-60 entries. Of course the Medal Office may have used a different design of IVs.

Medals and SWB were sent by registered letter and the handling was carefully recorded. If a medal was returned for say re-naming, or was undelivered it was recorded on a CRV - Certified Receipt Voucher.

'dd' is as you say 'dated'. Two, inch long lengths of each ribbon was sent out before the medals for sewing onto tunics. For Other Ranks (who did not have to claim their medals) this would happen about two months before they received their medals. For officers it was probably less (or they may have received them all together) as the time from receipt of EF9 to IV being raised was, as in your case, usually about six weeks.

EF/1/4968 is a reference of a type that appears throughout military records of the period. But I have not seen an explanation of how they worked.

Ken

[EDDIER]

If as according to his MIC he did not apply for his medals until Dec 1922 (EF9 rcvd 17/12/22)
and Cuff Ranks were abolished in 1920 for Shoulder Ranks, the mounted officer wearing medal ribbons and Cuff Ranks could not be the officer in photo 1.
If he continued his service in the Royal Signals Corp and was promoted to Lt, why is the mounted Lt wearing a cap badge of an Artillery Regiment, would it not be the Royal Engineers.
I think its is two different officers.