thomas foster

[Guest sarahw32]

i hope someone can help me as i am new to this i am trying to find out about my great grandfather thomas foster who is believed to have served with the bedfordshire regiment in the first world wara nd was awarded the military medal sometime during his service in france i believe i hope someone with more experience will be able to help as i have triend the london gazzette and i am losing heart now

thank you

[John_Hartley]

Sarah

Welcome to the Forum and don't lose heart yet. I presume you do not still have his medal in the family. If that's the case, then are you sure he was awarded it? If you are sure, then you will find the listing in the London Gazette.

Their search facility can be a so-and-so. So you might have to play around for quite a while. I entered the name as T. Foster and got over 50 hits. Don't forget to put the full stop in after his initial! As a rough estimate, he will have won his MM about three months before the date of the Gazette.

However, the bad news is that this will not give you any details of what he did. It might be worth you trying the Bedfords regimental museum at Luton. Alternatively, you will need to track down his battalion's War Diary at the National Archives at Kew (the mother site to this Forum gives some good ideas abotu "tracing Grandads war").

In any event, I'm afraid it's still pretty unlikely that there will be any mention of the specifics. MMs were fairly commonplace.

The final possibility is to try the local newspaper, if there was one near where he lived. This might actually be your best bet and worth a try first.

Good hunting.

John

[Michael]

Sarah

There are index cards for the Military Medal at the PRO. This will give you an indication of when the medal was won and the date when it was gazetted. There's also the man's service record, medal index card and medal roll to look for. Details of where/how to look are on the parent site.

Michael

[Guest Hill 60]

Sarah - Welcome to the Forum.

The address for the Bedfordshire Regiment Museum is:

Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment Museum Collection

Luton Museum & Art Gallery

Wardown Park

Luton

Bedfordshire

LU2 7HA

Tel: 01582 546000

Fax: 01582 746763

Good luck

[cliff brown]

I think your man appears here...

LG 9-7-17 page 6829.

22494 Pte T Foster, Beds Rgt.

Working on the three month theory, could it be Arras? You need his battalion to know where he was.

[Guest sarahw32]

thanks thats brilliant how and where did u find him ive a lot to learn i having being looking for two days and nothing once again thaNK not sure where to go from here any ideas

[cliff brown]

Best bet now is to get his Medal Index Card at National Archives in Kew. This should give his battalion. Then you can go to the battalion war diary - also at PRO - to see if awards are listed. Have you tried the local paper to where your man lived? These are usually available on microfilm at the local library and it's then a case of going through from say April 1917 (likely month of award) until you find his award mentioned (awards often were). The local paper could give his battalion and perhaps a hint about how the award was won. I would certainly approach the regt's museum.

Hope this helps.

The Medal Index Card is unlikely to give the battalion, but if you look up the medal rolls that the card refers to, they will.

Edited 27 November , 2003 by Chris_Baker