Interpreting a Medal Roll Index Card - re-earned medals.

Something that caught my interest today was this mess of a Medal Roll Index Card. There is so much information here- but which bits are useful? Pretty much all of it!

The basics - what is a Medal Roll Index Card?

Medal Rolls are books, arranged by regiment and medal, each one containing hundreds of pages and each page containing a list of men with their Battalion/Regiment, number, rank and any other regiments served in, also sometimes dates to do with service and medal issue. They are often cross referenced and were meticulously kept.

Medal Roll Index Cards are exactly what they sound like, a card index for the medal rolls, one card per man, giving the regimental information and the roll number and page number for their entry.

These records are the most complete list of who served in WW1 that we have, sometimes the Index Cards even include cards giving regimental information for men who had no medal entitlement (they didn't serve overseas).

What info do we usually get from a Medal Roll Index Card?

Medal Index Cards are usually pretty simple, they have the soldier's name, regiment, rank, number, theatre of war and date of entry therein if it was 1914-1915, a space for remarks that might include dates of commission, missing in action or death, other awards, mentioned in despatches etc.

The medal columns give the Medal Roll and the page number on which the soldier's medal entitlement is recorded. There may be additional roll details written in for Silver War Badge (which have their own rolls) or gallantry awards (some of which also have their own cards).

Different handwriting and ink can show different stages of the card's completion - some of the medals were returned or reissued and such events were noted on them for decades after WW1.

So what can we see on this card?

This card has three inks, red and blue fountain pen ink (two handwritings in red and two in blue) and one in black ballpoint pen inother handwriting. There is also the number 40 in pencil in the top left hand corner and two dates written in pencil.

There have clearly been some amendments made at different times.

Fortunately the Medal Rolls are wonderful documents and consulting them can clear up a lot of the questions raised by the above card.

The thick red ink

This is the original writing on the card. It records that this soldier served with the 2nd Bn, South Lancashire Regiment as private 11094, the bottom left entry shows his date of disembarkation in France was 5th Dec 1914. The roll and page for the 1915 Star were completed in this ink, then crossed out and the remark 'Forfeits Desertion 16-10-15' was written.

The first blue ink

This seems to have been the second set of entries. In the top section the information was added that this man served with the 2nd battalion of the South Lancs, and that he also served with the Royal Field Artillery with the number 112353.

The middle section was completed with the roll details for the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. These medals were then crossed out.

So, at this stage the card has three medal entitlements, all crossed out. We can still read the roll numbers so here are the roll entries that correspond to the crossed-out medals:

First, the medal roll for the forfeited 1914-15 Star. As you can see, the roll was completed in red ink and crossed out - it was completed with the knowledge it was a forfeited medal. This is why the medal rolls are so useful!

This roll was signed off in Jan 1920. It has "Re-submitted on Page 790" in the remarks column.

Below is the medal roll for the forfeited BWM (British War Medal) and VM (Victory Medal), [with a rare typo on his name]. This roll was signed off on 15th June 1920.

The second blue ink

This looks like different handwriting. The remark 'Medals re-earned Auth 13C' was made and the medal roll details were written in again for the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

The second red ink

This is a thinner pen and different handwriting. It records the remark 'Subsequent service in the RH & RFA' and under the 1915 Star entry writes " Do [ditto] Regt R" and the number of the regimental roll and page for the reissued medal.

finding the medal rolls for these entries allows us to date them:

First is the supplementary roll recording the re-earned BWM and VM. This roll was signed off 31st May 1921 in the remarks column it says "Also on page 486 J/1/103B S Lancs R as deserted 16/10/15. Medals reearned. Issue Auth'd RFA/347B-1"

Below is the re-submission of his 1914-15 Star on page 790 of the roll, this states the medal was re-submitted under A.C.I. 75 of 1921.

This was signed off on 15th June 1921.

ACI 75 is Army Council Instruction 75 - I don't have a copy of it, the ACIs are held at Kew and aren't available digitally yet.

However, another great internet resource - the Great War Forum - provided some further information. The Army Order 298 of 26th July 1920 reports the Royal Warrant on Forfeiture and Restoration of Orders, Decorations and Medals and includes the following paragraphs:

"The Army Council's Instruction on the above Warrant, Article 1240 - War medals and long service and good consuct medals forfeited by a soldier may be restored by the Army Council at any time. War medals may also be restored by the general officer commanding the command in cases where a soldier who has forfeited such medals is accepted for re-enlistement, provided that all former service is truthfully stated upon such re-enlistment. The restoration of any forfeited medal shall carry with it any gratuity appertaining hereto, as from the date of the restoration."

In a nutshell:

This soldier served for 10 months, deserted, re-enlisted [without lying] and served again. He was eligible for all three campaign medals but forfeited them due to desertion. This was standard, any soldier convicted of an offence (either military or criminal courts, during service or after!) would forfeit their medals.

In 1920, when the medals were issued, he did not receive them. Then a Royal Warrant changed the Army Order regarding forfeited medals and in 1921 his medals were issued.

Further questions and educated guesses:

There are often codes, Authorisation numbers and annotations on medal cards that can't be interpreted, though you can often make an educated guess. On this card we have a few:

The dates in pencil

10/6/22

1/9/21

These dates may be when the medals were actually issued to the soldier, they are written in line with the medal details.

I originally thought the number 40 was not relevant to this man, just a filing reference but the ever knowledgable Ken Lees has explained that it refers to his regiment - the South Lancashire Regiment was produced by the amalgamation of the 40th Regiment of Foot and 82nd Regiment of Foot in 1881. Thanks Ken!

The black ink

DIV 3A 24/5/85 is written on the top right of the card. The 'DIV 3A' appears on quite a few medal cards and appears to be a record of when the record was accessed - sometimes for internal record keeping, sometimes due to enquiries from family, researchers etc.

The numbers A199 (supp role), B 291, C727 and C727 are references to the medal rolls, presumable whoever accessed the medal index card in 1985 also accessed the rolls and noted which ones they were.

Finally, there is a stamp down the right hand side of the card which gives the date 9 DEC 1985 which is perhaps the date that the query in 1985 was completed.

So there you have it! This medal card has given us a whole lot of information and a timeline for this soldier. I have to admit he's not the man I was researching, I just like a mystery and enjoyed unravelling the information on this card so much I thought I'd share it!