Can anyone please help with these medal cards?

[M.T.H]

Hi Kev,

I'm really pleased that you have the mention from the paper and that wonderful certificate,I would certainly recommend further research,it can be frustrating at times,but when you get a result it's a real buzz!

Annie mentioned about searching the TNA catalogue,so I've collected the most relevant bits from TNA's website.It's much like using any search engine and it's a case of trial and error really but hopefully the following should help a bit. I'll have to post it on the next message otherwise it'll be too long.

Cheers,Mick

[M.T.H]

To get to the right search page,start at TNA's home page and go to the "Search the Archives" button and from the dropdown that appears,select "search the Catalogue (PROCAT)" and click on it.

Then click the big red button that says "Search the Catalogue".When the search page opens use the following to find what you want.All of the following info is from the TNA help page.
Searching the catalogue

You must enter a word or phrase in the first box.

To narrow down your search you may use covering dates.

Please note that dates exist for over 90% of piece and items and regnal years will be retrieved, but some entries have blank dates (particularly at sub-series level) or dates in an unconvertible form.

Searching by department
You may restrict your search to specific departments (WO, FO, HO, CAB) or record series (WO 97, FO 371, HO 144) typing their code in the last box. To search over several codes, separate them with a comma (,) and a space (AIR, WO). To exclude a code type NOT before the code: NOT WO

The most popular department codes.
ADM Admiralty, 1205-1992

AIR Air Ministry, Royal Air Force, 1862-1985

ASSI Assizes (records of the Justices of Assize arranged by circuits for groups of counties), 1554-1971

BT Board of Trade, 1697-2002

C Chancery (legal administration of the Crown and Court of Chancery), 1085-2001

CAB Cabinet, 1863-1997

CO Colonial Office, 1570-1990

DEFE Ministry of Defence, 1808-2001

E Exchequer (financial), 1086-1994

ED Education, 1818-2000

FCO Foreign and Colonial Office, 1950-1990

FO Foreign Office, 1567-2002

HO Home Office, 1700-2002

HW Government Communications Headquarters (records relating to interception of enemy communications and security of government electronic communications), 1914-1978

IR Inland Revenue, Boards of Stamps, Taxes, Excise (including Tithe maps and death duty registers), 1513-1999

KB Court of King's Bench (relating to litigation in which the state has an interest), 1194-1987

KV Records of the Security Service, 1905-1953

LAB Labour and Employment Departments, 1836-1995

MEPO Metropolitan Police Office, 1803-1995

RAIL Railway and Canal Companies, 1634-1982

RG General Register Office (including census of population and some non-parrochial births, marriages and death registers), 1567-1999

SC Special Collections (including Court Rolls, Papal Bulls, Ancient Petitions and Seals), 12th cent-20th cent

SP State Paper Office and Secretaries of State, 1231-c1888

WO War Office (including service records and regimental war diaries), 1568-1996

T Treasury, 1547-1996 

Got to split it again (to big!) last bit to follow,Mick

[M.T.H]

This search finds data under title, scope and content, arrangement and administrative history at all levels (see the Glossary and Catalogue structure for information on fields and levels).

The search is limited to 3000 results. Within a record series (like WO 339) only the first 300 results will be displayed If you have more you will need to Refine your search. Searches can be refined by:

Being more specific with your search terms

Adding AND and a second or third keyword

Using double quotation marks to find only exact expellings ("Stephens" will not find Stephen)

Entering a narrower range of dates

Restricting the search to a government department or record series
Search tips

The system will find the most common spelling variations of your keywords. Calibrate will find calibrated, calibrating, calibration. To search for exact spelling only use double quotation marks: "Stephens" or "Hess".

Phrases: You can search for several words in order in a phrase. For example: Enigma machine, Council of Europe, health and safety, etc. The Catalogue will not find entries with those terms if they are not next to each other and in the same order.

To search for several words placed anywhere link your keywords with AND. For example, 11 AND Argyll, Edward VIII AND abdication. To link keywords AND must be in upper case, as searches for 'health and safety', 'foot and mouth' or 'health and safety AND nuclear' are also possible.
You can also use NOT, NEAR, OR. For example, Edward VIII NOT abdication, International NEAR development, Ghana OR Gold Coast, nuclear OR atomic.

You will need to use Brackets to indicate the order of the search in longer or more complex searches. For example:
development AND (Palestine OR Israel OR West Bank)

It is possible to search for terms with hyphens as in inter-allied or co-operative.

To find spelling variations or terms that may have foreign (special) characters use a question mark. For example, Sm?th will find Smith and Smyth; wom?n will find woman and women. Br?nn?ysund finds Brönnöysund and would find Bronnoysund too.

A wildcard (*) extends the possibilities in an uncertain search. Robin* will find Robins, Robinson; Pira* will find pirate and piracy but will also retrieve Piraeus or Pirani.

Apostrophes are recognised as punctuation, not search terms. This default allows the retrieval of possesive forms. For instance, a search for peasant finds peasant's and peasants' as well as peasant and peasants. If you need to retrieve apostrophes, substitute them with a space: Bo ness finds Bo'ness. Pattern of retrieval for words with apostrophe:
O’Brien finds Obrien
O Brien finds O’Brien
*Brien finds anything ending with "Brien" (including Obrien, O'brien and De Brien).

Good luck Kev,give me a shout if you have any probs,

Cheers,Mick

[liverpool annie]

Mick - you're the best!!!!

Thank you so much for that - reading through it -  I can see where I've been going wrong -  "I get it" was a phrase I used I believe - that was on the site wasn't it? but I suppose I just didn't read it right...!!

Anyways thanks again -  invaluable info ...........!!

Annie

[M.T.H]

Goodness Annie,I'm blushing now

I can't take the credit for it though.

The help page on TNA's website has got a lot better,the whole site has,particularly the method of searching the catalogue.

All of the info was from help section, it can still be tricky to find what help you want though but TNA do seem to be making the whole thing more accessible.

 I've no complaints about the site though,after you've used it for a while you get to realise that the information they hold is vast and I think that they've simplified the search procedure as much as they can. Once you get used to the way it works,it makes life a lot easier.

Kev,I think that you should definately seek out the war diary entry for the date of your MID (The whole month would be good).The diaries that you want ARE at TNA but from what I can see they are not available yet for digital download (Typical! ) so it'll mean a visit to Kew.

If you can't get there or get anyone to go for you,the best thing to do would be to go to this site
 
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

and post a message there to ask if anyone has a copy of the war diary for the dates you're interested in.Give as much info as you can.

You might have to register,but it's free and worth it as there are some very knowledgable people there.I'm not too sure which thread to post it on,have a look,I'm sure there is a war diary thread,if you're not sure,read some of the other messages as there are plenty of others seeking similar info and it might help to give you some idea what to write.

I will keep a look out for any transcriptions of the 6th Gloucesters 1918 diaries,you never know!

If you do manage to find it,let us know as I'd love to know what it says but not half as much as you do, I'll bet!!

Good luck Kev,keep us posted,

Mick

[Kevwood]

Cheers Mick, i have actually emailed the tna and they say they can post it to me but i need to tell them exactly what i want and they will give me a price and then send me a copy.

So maybe you could help me with that, i am not sure how much of the war diary i need, obviously if money was no object i would like the lot , but i have already asked somebody that is offering this service on rootschat and they said would be over 50 quid!! So i may need to do it bit by bit, starting with the most important.

Thanks for your help so far.

Kev.

[M.T.H]

Kev,

PLEASE be careful in your dealings with TNA regarding quotes for copies.It will be expensive and to be honest with you,£50.00 could well be right.

I'm sure that your itching to get hold of the diary entries but here's what I suggest you do.Post a message of the war forum I mentioned (there's no point paying TNA for anything yet as someone on the war forum might well have a transcription of the diary for the time you want - no promises though)

If that doesn't work you could seek out the services of one of the many researchers who do this kind of work all the time,have a look through Rootschat on the For sale/Wanted board or post a message on here asking if anyone can recommend a good Military researcher at TNA.If you're going to pay anyone to get copies of the diary,this could well be you're cheapest option.

It might also be worth checking Rootschat for anyone who might be visiting TNA and is willing do a look up as you do have a reference (which is half the work!).Whatever you decide,the TNA reference for the file that contains the diary that you want is WO 95/429  which contains the war diaries for 1/6 Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment  1917 Nov. - 1919 Feb. They were in Italy as part of the 48th division.It's up to you how much of the diary you want (or can afford!) I would certainly look at getting the pages for a few days before and a few after the day of the mention in despatches to start with,that should be enough to help set the scene.

The trouble is Kev,if you do get the copies,you're almost certainly going to want to know more,it's a very interesting thing to do.I started with just one entry in a war diary and as soon as I found it,I was hooked and had to know more,and more..........

You must be very proud of you grandfathers and I'm sure that they would be equally proud to know that you are taking such an interest.

Good on yer!

Cheers,Mick

[manmack]

kev,you are better off taking micks advice,go to the great war forum first,they will dig it out if its there,i dont know whos the gloucs regt enthusiast but ime sure there is one,but you have lads on there who have access to all sorts,post in on soldiers,thats the busiest site,and ask them whatever you like,they love coming up with answers,great bunch,mack

[manmack]

kev,are your sollar ancestors from sheepscombe,stroud,mack
ps thanks for the PM