Thursday, February 19, 2009

A Chailey medal index card


Click on the image above to see the detail more clearly. This is a good example of a medal index card (MIC) with additional detail on the reverse. In my experience of looking at these, officers generally have an address written on the reverse, as do men who, for whatever reason, had a problem with the original issue of their medals.

In this case, George Arthur Kemp's medals were returned; the reason for their return - and it looks as though they were received back on 25th September 1923 - is contained within 1743 King's Regulations. For 1912, these read:

1743. Medals which, at the end of 10 years, still remain unclaimed, will be sent to the India Office (if granted for Indian service), or to the deputy director of ordnance stores, Royal Dockyard (Medal Branch), Woolwich (if granted for other service) to be broken up.

I'm guessing that this particular paragraph had been amended by 1923.

New medals were issued on 8th October 1923 and sent to George at Rock House, Colonel's Bank, Chailey.

The reference number under the column headed "Roll" and the page reference next to that, refer to the original medal rolls which are currently housed at the National Archives but which - one hopes - will be available on line in due course.

It is worth noting that had it not been for the efforts of the Western Front Association (WFA), the First World War medal cards - the majority of which have now been scanned by Ancestry.co.uk - would have been destroyed.

The image of George Kemp's MIC reproduced here, is Crown Copyright.

Did your ancestor serve overseas during WW1? Find his medal index card on-line. Click here!

No comments: