How would i get this info?

[garydevine1995]

The National Archives has a couple of medal cards for an Alexander Allison in the Cameron Highlanders.

Medal card of Allison, Alexander M
Cameron Highlanders 4377 Private
Army Service Corps M/428384 Private
Date 1914-1920
Catalogue reference WO 372/1

i am pleased to say Alan this is my great grandfather i have managed to persuade my mum to let me use her card so i can acess the alexander mcdermitt allison records and on his enlistment he says he is willing to sign with the camerons and his number is 4377 woooooooooooow. as question number 10 asks " did you recieve a notice, and do you understand its meaning, and who gave it to you? " he says yes and the name he put down that gave him the notice was sergant gombie???

i have found a medal roll records and where it says victory it says "RASC 101 B2q0 page no 30203" the q could be a 9, what does this mean is it a code sort of thing for the medal or something ? and how do i access the rest of he pages i can only acces the medal roll record and the attestation record. some records are poorly kept

[speleobat2]

Gary,

I think that was Sargent Crombie on the British WWI records on Ancestry. Also, if you want the pages after page 1, go up to the upper right and look for the arrows next to the docuement numbers. If you keep clicking the right arrow, it will bring up the original of each additional page. Make a note of the number of the first page of his records though. It looks like there may be some duplicates in there so it might get a little confusing.

Carol

[AndrewP]

Andrew, i dont understand, see when you say "There are two for Alexander Mcdermitt Allison, one of 10 pages and one of 12 pages" i dont get it, does that mean that if i access one record of alexander mcdermitt allison the other 9 or 11 pages with also be held within that one record?

Hi Gary,

I have had a look at all of the pages in the two record sets. They seem to be two different sets of documents.

On clicking on the 10-page index entry you get to page #69063

• 69063 - Short Service, Attestation of No.4377, Alex McD Allison
  69064 - Descriptive Report on Enlistment (back of #69063)
  69065 - Casualty Form - Active Service
  69066 - back of #69065
  69067 - Certificate of Trade Proficiency (Army Service Corps)
  69068 - Certificate of Trade Proficiency (Army Service Corps) (not same one as #69067)
  69069 - Medical History
  69070 - possibly other side of #69070
  69071 - Protection Certificate and Certificate of Identity
  69072 - repeat of #69071

On clicking on the 12 page index entry, you get to #69073

• 69073 - Short Service, Attestation of No.4377, Alex McD Allison (gives same info as 69063, but doesn't appear to be a duplicate of the same document)
  69074 - Descriptive Report on Enlistment (back of #69073)
  69075 - repeat of #69074
  69076 - Statement of the Services of No.4377; Name Alexr McD Allison
  69077 - repeat of #69076
  69078 - Statement as to Disability
  69079 - Casualty Form - Active Service
  69080 - back of #69079
  69081 - Statement of the Services of No.4377; Name Alexr McD Allison (not same as #69076)
  69082 - repeat of #69081

Both lots seem to be 10 pages despite what the index entry says. If you go for the one listed as a 10 page entry, you can keep paging forward past the 10 pages into the next set of 10 pages. Only after #69082 is there a page telling you that the next page is the start of another soldier's record.

All the best,

Andrew

[garydevine1995]

I couldnt see the POW record or the next of kin and when he was transfered to the army service corps and when he left the army. And I don't understad the medal roll record what kind of medal did he get ?

[Currie]

Great stuff Gary,

Did you download all the pages detailed by Andrew?

The National Archives has a guide to interpreting a Medal Card, although it would probably be best to have a good look at all of the available service record pages before you spend too much time on that. See also info re campaign medals. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/docu ... s.asp#read

There’s another useful guide at the LongLongTrail site. http://www.1914-1918.net/grandad/mic.htm

The RASC bit stands for Royal Army Service Corps as on the medal card. They were responsible for transport and supply etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Army_Service_Corps

Regarding William Devine being hospitalised in Ireland, it may have been because of the huge numbers of casualties that were occurring and because there was no room closer to home. As an extreme example on the very first day of the battle of the Somme in 1916 the British Army suffered 60,000 casualties, about a third of whom were killed.

All the best,
Alan

[garydevine1995]

Thanks alan,

Is there any specific medal that would have been given out to people in the RASC?

[Currie]

Gary,

For most soldiers there were only the usual campaign medals. The medal card will show those that your ancestor received. A better view of the three most common are shown on this page. If he did not see service in a theatre of war before 1916 then he would normally have received only two medals. The British authorities were not noted for their generosity in awarding medals. http://www.1914-1918.net/grandad/themedals.htm

Interpreting all the detail in a British Army service record isn’t going to be very easy. Maybe this guide will help. http://www.1914-1918.net/interpret.html

Alan

[Currie]

A couple of things:

The M in front of the RASC number appears to stand for Mechanical Transport.

The absence of a letter in front of the Cameron Highlanders number may indicate that he was in the regiment before WW1. I think that WW1 enlistments got an S prefix but I’m not sure exactly how that worked. It may have been only something to do with going into the reserves first.

Alan

[AndrewP]

Hi Gary,

• The next of kin info is on #69064 and #69074.
• The transfer to the Camerons is in the middle of #69065, on #69076 (repeated on #69077) and on #69081 (repeated on #69082).
• The POW info is near the bottom of #69065 (difficult to read).
• His two medals are listed at the foot of #69064 and #69074.

All the best,

AndrewP

[garydevine1995]

Thanks Andrew ,

I will look at records carefully when I get home from school.