These medals were issued to John Newcombe’s grandson, by the office of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen as recently as 2001. (I am indebted to Mr. Peter R. Newcombe of Exeter, for allowing me the use of this image.)
First World War Medal Rolls
- Merchant Service & Naval Reserves
The medal rolls of the Merchant Service, which are at The National Archives, Public Records Office, Kew give
some pertinent detail, but usually there is not all that much information of great use. It is obvious, from numerous searches that these rolls are far from complete.There are also medal rolls for the Royal Naval Reserve, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and the Mercantile Marine Reserve, which are split into officers and ratings. Those rolls dealing with campaign medals, however, follow normal military fashion. Therefore, potentially useful genealogical information is limited. Official numbers are recorded for the R.N.R. and R.N.V.R. ratings that can be essential in locating their service sheets. Also, in the case of the M.M.R. official numbers can be shown (I suspect if joining from mid 1916 onwards) that are of no known use. However, sometimes individual commissioned Mercantile Fleet Auxiliaries and even men-o-war are sometimes shown - for service prior to mid 1916.
There were also separate rolls for wartime martial honours and awards and can require
multiple searches. Also held at the P.R.O., there are different card indexes for those ‘mentioned in dispatches’; those given British awards; and separately those who were awarded foreign decorations; as well as others. These are not particularly well labelled. Those of the ‘Royal Navy’ officers, also contain R.N.R. and R.N.V.R. Anyway, from these cards, references to ‘honour sheets’ can be made, which can be particularly important in dealing with individuals who were ‘mentioned in dispatches’. It can be far more difficult, however, trying to get further information on those awarded foreign decorations.Additionally, within miscellaneous medals rolls at Kew are those of the Australian Naval Forces, Maltese R.N.R, Newfoundland R.N.R. Incidentally, the officers’ roll for the M.M.R. is to be found on the final microfilm devoted to R.N.R. officers. This is after a separate roll for R.N.R. skippers that were warrant officers. These, I found by complete accident. (I and other freelance researchers have requested that the paper and computer catalogues be improved to reflect these various rolls.)
These rolls can be found in a number of formats, from original card-indexes, to micro-filmed and micro-fiche copies. Needless to say, I have also found a number of omissions in these military rolls as well. This seems to be particularly the case with men with common surnames.
Example of a merchant mariner’s First World War medal roll card
Example of a rating’s entry in the First World War R.N.R. medal roll
Example of entries of a R.N.R. officer awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and bar
Example of entries of a R.N.R. officer mentioned in dispatches and awarded a foreign decoration
Example of a rating’s entry in the First World World War R.N.V.R. medal roll
Example of entries of a R.N.V.R. officer awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
Example of entries of R.N.V.R. officer mentioned in dispatches
Examples of entries of naval campaign medals
Click the icon below to see an example of a group of medals issued to a merchant mariner for both the Great War 1914-19 and the Second World War 1939-45.
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These medals were issued to John Newcombe’s grandson, by the office of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen as recently as 2001. (I am indebted to Mr. Peter R. Newcombe of Exeter, for allowing me the use of this image.) |
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