Help / Opinions on Medal Index Cards re Cpl / CQMS / WO II Royal Engineers

[leigh kitchen]

Right, not as confusing as I thought, of the 5 cards thrown up by the National Archives to Royal Army Medical Corps men with serial number 52160, two are shown twice - there are only 3 cards, but for some reason 2 of them are duplicated via different image reference reference numbers on the National Archives web site (the two cards themselves are'nt duplicated, it's just that there are different links to the same cards on microfiche).

The medals themselves:
The 1914-15 Star is named to 52160 Cpl A P Ward RAMC,
the Victory & BWM to 52160 WO 2 A S Ward RAMC.

No problem there, just that there's a MIC for the 1914-15 Star to Cpl Ward, & a seperate MIC for the Victory & BWM to WO 2 Ward, & somebody's made a mistake with the middle initial of this man.
The 3rd card is for the MSM to 52160 QMS Ward RAMC

The 3 different MIC show the following details:

Ward AP RAMC Cpl 52160

Shows 15 Star with Medal Roll reference RAMC/170(?) Page 1395
First served in (1) France 9/9/15.

Ward Albert S RAMC WO 2 52160

Shows Victory & BWM with Medal Roll reference RAMC 101/101B22 page 1545
(no other detail)

Meritorious Service Medal Card
Ward Albert Samuel QMS 52160

Corps RAMC
France
Date of Gazette Peace Gazette
Registered Paper 0137/5618
Schedule Number 279306

So, two MIC to the same man, a MSM that I did'nt know about & which is missing from the group that I've got, & £7 wasted on buying the same two MICs twice each due to their having different reference numbers when thrown up on a search of the site.

I'm finding it a little annoying that I'm paying for the same cards twice, having made sure that all of them had different image reference numbers.

I recently bought the MIC for one of my grandfathers who was in the East Surreys & the Labour Corps. I'd got a paper copy via a researcher years ago, but checked the site & found that he was listed twice on a search, with exactly the same detail. Thinking that there may be two MIC for him, albeit perhaps with exactly the same detail, I found that both cards would be on the same 6 card microfiche so coughed up my £3.50 to download what turned out to be just the one MIC which of course I'd already got, rather than two different cards.
I thought that I was being more careful this time, but I'm stuffed again.
Be brutally honest, is it the site or is it just me being thick?

By the way, anybody noticed that the site has all the blokes in the Royal Lancaster Regiment mistakenly typed up as the Royal Lancashire Regiment when you search on them?

[Tony Farrell]

No, I don't think it's you, rather the system. When one takes in to account the vast numbers of personnel involved in the Great War, it's hardly surprising the 'odd' administrative faux pas occurred - not helped by the immeasurable handwriting styles. I can understand why people get hooked on WWI records as much as can understand why people don't - I'm neither here nor there. I can't really help you much on this, as it's an exact science - and one I'm not that conversant with.

One thing I don't like is that one has to pay for the download before viewing it. Surely there's a programme for watermarking the screen image to prevent unpaid downloads? It's an expensive way of accumulating a lot of unwanted printouts otherwise, and it's seems as quirky a site as that of the London Gazette when it comes to name searches.

One could always throw them in a draw and go down the boozer?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Leigh, just ran a search on my Grandad (RFA) and my great Uncle (RNAS) with no results found so I guess these records have gone courtesy of the Luftwaffe in 1940.


Cheers, Ade.

[Tony Farrell]

Not necessarily so Ade, as they're not complete yet. They're only half-way through the alphabet so I was told.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks Tony do there is still hope!


Cheers, Ade.

[Tony Farrell]

It would appear do!

[Adam H]

Tony, smartarse.

Am I right that it is free to search but costs to have a copy of the MIC posted out to you? I've not yet explored the database...

Cheers,

Adam

[MerchantSeaman]

I know its free to search but thought that if you wanted a .pdf image suitable to print out then you had to pay for it.

[Greeves]

Pete's right - free search but to download and see the MIC costs GBP3.50. If you collect to the same family name you'll be in luck as there are 6 to a page. For example - I've downloaded 12 of my men's MIC's now but have the card images for 72 men - a reinforced platoon!

[gaz]

could you put up the website address please guys i would be interested in both my grandfathers
regards gaz

[leigh kitchen]

Here we go again - I've lost 2 lengthy postings for this thread 'cos the system keeps telling me that I'm not logged on, I'll try just the link:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

[yellow]

I think the chaps who know me from that other forum are aware of my opinions regarding this database.

Thank God someone out there is making some sort of effort to remember and record the men and women who served. We owe them that much. The Australian and Canadian Governments are miles ahead of projects such as this in the UK. For a long time the attitude has been that there are "just too many men to record".

I was down the local on Saturday and it was frightening to know that no one in there had even heard of the Battle of the Somme!

Steve.

[gaz]

thanks leigh

[leigh kitchen]

Check your men by putting in different combinations of info - search on surname alone, surname with one initial, with two initials, number alone, number with regiment etc, & be aware that single initial names are listed in chronological order with different runs of 2 & 3 initial names, they don't just follow on in what most of us would think of as a sensible order.

Some double barreled names were listed by the first part of the surname, some by the second, I don't know if this problem's overcome on the site now, but I suspect that it isn't.