John Cairns - Glasgow

[Guest Joanne]

Hi there,

Just raided my mum's old biscuit tin and got a picture of my grandad from The Great War. Going by the insignia on his cap I'm guessing he was in the Machine Gun Corp given that it matches the insignia on a Christmas card he sent home to my grandma with 'Machine Gun Corp 1915-1918' written on it. (Stunning powers of deduction!). I read about the MGC on The Long Long Trail and I found out they were attached to Brigades rather than battalions from 1915. Anyway, this may be a hard one but would anybody know or is there any way of finding out what unit/brigade he might have been attached to. What I know is, he was in France first and then in Egypt. He also looked after a horse which he was very fond of and then a camel (of which he had lots of stories about!). He was from Glasgow and probably joined up there...if that makes any difference.

Anyway, on the off chance......... any info would be appreciated.

Joanne

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Interesting - certainly is MGC. However John Cairns does not get any hits on the on-line Medal index cards

[Guest Joanne]

Hi Ian

Thanks for looking. Is the on-line medal index, the same as the PRO but online? I would have thought he would have been entitled to medals. Any thoughts on why he's not there? I guess he could have been in another unit before MGC but I don't know, and I don't know if that would make any difference. But the card he sent to grandma had 'Machine Gun Corp' on it and was dated 1918.

Anyway, if you have any other thoughts or suggestions, I'd be grateful. Thanks Ian.

Joanne

[Guest Joanne]

Hi Ian again.

Just to say I've been on the national archive online medal card index and there are no hits for any 'Cairns'. I know there are 'Cairns' with medals as I already have a photocopy of the medal entitlement of John's brother Hugh Cairns. So I guess they probably haven't yet got all the names on-line yet....or some surnames are missing, for some reason!!!

Kind regards

Joanne