Hello Guys, could someone give me a hand for a sec? I've got a 1914-1918 War medal from my Great Great Grandfather. It's the only one of his medals that survived to arrive in my hands. I don't know much about him, but hopefully you could help. On the rim of the medal is engraved Pte. W A Mann. Obviously name and rank, and his service number is present. What I don't know is what his regiment was....the initials W O R come after his name and number. What is this regiment? British or Canadian? I'm drawing a blank.
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Hey Mike,
WOR may well be an early abbreviation for WORCESTER (nowadays Worcester is abbreviated to WORCS). So, I'm thinking Worcester Regiment here.
I turned this up using the great god google, might be some help.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.co...-07/1026067782
Dave -
My apologies, that link was actually part of a thread and a reply to this -
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.co...-07/1025987084
DComment
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WOR - <tt>Western Ontario Regiment</tt>Comment
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Great! I thought it was Western Ontario, but wasn't quite sure. Since he was from Ontario, it only makes sense I guessComment
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I never got to the bottom of exactly why they put W.O.R. on the medals instead of a Battalion number.Comment
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In WW1, 1st Btn Western Ont Regt was part of 1st Canadian Div, sailed for France Oct 3, 1914, 18th Btn W.O.R part of 2nd Can Div formed 25 May 1915 joined 1st Div in France Sept 1915. see Canadian Military Heritage Project.Comment
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The provincial designations appear to be an effort to conform to the British nomenclature in use and, consequently, the terminology made it into the naming of certain WWI medals. An example are gallantry awards, which can be found named in a similar manner (albeit with more than the simple acronym)
I am not 100% certain why some medals are named WOR, EOR, QR, NSR, etc, etc, and others are found named to "odd battalions." However, I suspect it has something to do with the location/function of the soldier at the time the nominal rolls were submitted for issue of the BWM. ie. if they were still in a divisional or higher formation depot, they were lumped in with the WOR lot, but if working as a rear-party of a broken up battalion, or never part of a different organization, the medal may be found with a "odd battalion" as the unit identifier.
In any case, all provincial battalions, and the vast majority of "odd battalion" BWMs are single entitlements. (since the soldier had to be on strength and in a theatre of war to earn entitlement to the 1914/1915 Star and VM)Comment
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Curious, Mike-
You mentioned in your original post that his service number is on the medal. Is it 524225, 844987 or 3133057?
KenComment
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3133057....Is there anything you can find out about him from this information?Comment
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He enlisted voluntarily in the 149th Battalion at Sarnia, Ontario on 22 April 1916 but only spent 3 months with them. His regimental number with this unit was 844978.
Not sure why he left the 149th, but he must have been discharged from the C.E.F. because he was drafted under the Military Service Act (MSA) at London, Ontario in April, 1918. (1st Depot Battalion W.O.R.)
Here is the link to his Attestation Paper and Draft Form at Library and Archives Canada. http://tinyurl.com/5clkyf
Note that there is a link on the page I pointed to above that shows how to order a copy of his service file. Costs 20 to 30 dollars CDN and takes 4-5 weeks for delivery in Canada.Last edited by Ken MacLean; 07-27-2008, 04:54 AM.Comment
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Wow! thanks for the info, upon closer examination, I have learned that this gentleman was actually not my great great grandfather, but rather my great great uncle! That site you showed me is fantastic, I have quite a few CEF medals I'd like to research how does one use that resource, as I can't seem to navigate beyond the page you linked to?Comment
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Mike,
Here is the link to the "Soldiers of the First World War" database at LAC.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...f/index-e.htmlComment
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Mike with further reasearch you may find that his field unit was the 18th battn
as there was also a WOR used for this battn
PAULComment
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