This is probably his commission as a temporary Second Lieutenant...dated 15th July 1915...published 16th July 1915
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29232/page/6968The ancestry link works fine, but you have to be a paid member in order for it to work, it was originally posted by an ancestry member called sky555.
This link will work for non ancestry members, but it only shows a thumbnail version of the ancestry picture...
http://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/image/namespaces/1093/media/7c817300-10f5-487d-a685-d0bb0d6b6654.jpg?client=TreeService&MaxSide=96Another ancestry member valerie1638 claims that he is her grandfather, (b1879 d1929).
The picture shows him wearing the slouch hat that the officers of the West African Frontier Force wore, but it refers to him as being a Captain, which can't be his correct WW1 rank if his WW1 Victory Medal and British War Medal were issued in the rank of Lieutenant, unless he achieved his Captaincy post WW1, but you only mentioned the rank inscribed on his Star medal.
If this is the same person it seems that he was a Captain, this is his service record as a Captain in the West African Frontier Force...
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1085309?descriptiontype=Full&ref=WO+339/31407and this is his WW1 medal record in the West African Frontier Force...
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D5420105#The date of 15th September 1915 on his medal record documents isn't an embarkation date, it's a disembarkation date i.e. the date on which he first entered a theater of war, which in this case was theater 2B which = Gallipoli, and he wasn't awarded the 1914 Star Campaign Medal, he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, and it was awarded in the name of G.L. Strachan in the rank of Lieutenant in the Sierra Leone Battalion of the West African Frontier Force, which was listed as WAF Force.
What he or his unit were supposedly doing in Gallipoli I have no idea since they were engaged with the Germans in Cameroon at that time and a lot of the other officers in that regiment have the same entry into theater date as he does, that date appears on the medal roll for their 1914-1915 Stars but without a theatre code, which should have been listed on the medal roll for Star Medals, and yet for all of them their British War and Victory Medal roll also contains the entry into first theatre of war date, and it also contains the notation of 2(b) Cameroons.
The correct theater code for the Cameroons was 4(c) for entry up to 31st December 1915 and 5(c) for entry after 1st January 1915, so there was obviously errors in compiling the medal rolls, the theatre code was listed on the wrong medal roll, it should have been listed on the Star medal roll, and the wrong theater code was listed, none of which should have any effect on the medals that were actually issued, since those dates only served to indicate whether a 1914 Star or a 1914-1915 Star was to be issued and the 1914 Star was only issued for service in either France or Belgium and was only issued for service up to 22nd November 1914, for service in other theaters up to 31st December 1915 the 1914-1915 Star Medal was awarded.
There was another error though on the British War and Victory Medal roll, his surname was mis-spelled as Stracean,...he was listed as George Lewis Stracean Lieutenant ( special list) Sierra Leone Battalion West African Field Force ( that was listed as W.A.F. Force ) the date of the end of his service in that theater of war was also listed = 19th April 1916.
His surname was correctly spelled on his medal record card.
So what surname is actually inscribed on his British War Medal and Victory Medal. ?
