Jump to content
The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Actions and Citatations


stephenh

Recommended Posts

Pals I have a military medal to a Canadian Artilleryman which was gazetted on Feb 1919, any ideas how long before that his gallant action took place?

Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roughly speaking, it's usually about 5-6 months after the action that the award was gazetted making the action for which your man was awarded the MM taking place approx. late October to November 1918.

Dave.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dave

Found my man in the war diaries of OCT 1918 being granted the MM for actions in late August. Why does the LG mention him therefore in February 1919

Confused ;)

Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my experience, the time delay is about 3-5 months but I think it is much trickier trying to pin down post-war gazette dates. There were instances of men being given something retrospectively because they'd "had a good war" and deserved recognition for their overall service rather than for any one specific action. A friend even has a MM & Bar group in his collection which includes a reply to a letter sent by the actual recipient who asked what he'd been decorated for - HE didn't know! They couldn't tell him!!!!

Sorry if all of that doesn't exactly help!

Cheers,

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stephen

Have a man that was Gazetted in the June of 1919 for a action in the Sept of 1918, making that nine months.

Regards Kevin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have quite a number of citation dates to compare to gazette dates and there is a wide variation, from two and a half, to nine months.

Interestingly, the Battalion War Diary often contains notification that the awards have been made only ten days after the date of the action.

Ken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There may be a citation available at the 'Honours and Awards Section' of the Canadian National Archives. Not sure if they are reachable on line at the NA?

At the very least this soldiers service file is available.

Good luck, nice medal

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd agree with Jim Grundy; from my analysis of MGC awards, the AVERAGE delay for the LG notification was about three months. It could be longer for 'non-immediate' , or 'periodic', awards (those published in the Birthday and New Year Honours). There are plenty of examples in War Diaries of higher commanders visiting units and pinning on ribbons of awards approved in principle but not yet Gazetted.

(It should be easier to correlate for WW2, as the recommendations survive..)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've found the same for some Australians who were recommended for awards on Gallipoli in the last few months of 1915 and yet were not gazetted till June 1916.

In a couple of instances the men were actually with different units by the time the awards came through.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stephen: I have some WWI unit histories for Canadian batteries/brigades. What was your man's name? Dick Flory

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...