WWI medals

Ancestry has recently published records of medals awarded in WWI, e.g. British War, Victory and 1914-15 Star at UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls.
My Dad was among those awarded the 1914-15 Star (Doherty, T.O'C. Piece 2635 Royal Fusiliers). What puzzles me is the wording scribbled beside his name, which I think says "Label prep. by illegible". None of the other men has anything like that, only "No label req." or then nothing at all. Another interesting thing is the blank by his name in the column Record of disposal of decoration (second from end - sorry, top gog chopped off). The only other man with a blank is recorded as "Died". My Dad was very much alive. Pity the pic is very small so difficult to read. I've wondered and wondered what a label might be - thinking it must be some kind of 'medal terminology'. But now I'm beginning to think it might be no more than a postal term, though why Dad's label should need special preparation defeats me. Does anyone have any bright ideas? And I'm sorry if the link hasn't worked. I really did try this time!! Gillian

 

Hi Gillian, I don't agree with Peter, I zoomed right into the image and there does seem to be a very faint desender, so I think it does say " label prep by ....." the last bit could be someone's initials. As for your other query, sorry can't help with that.

 

Yes, I really do think there is a descender - but it's very faint as Heather says. Here it is again - zoomed. I too think the scribble is someone's initials. Perhaps I'll look through some others and see if I can find a pattern. It's probably not important - I'm just curious. It could have something to do with the fact that Dad made the army his career. Perhaps all the other men, except the one who died of course, left after the war.

 

I've now been through dozens of the names in the Roll and have found alternatives 'label ppd by xx', 'label ppd in xxx', 'label prep in xxx' and 'label prep by xx' as in my Dad's case. The xxx seems to be E F 3, or something like that, in all cases . Stranger and stranger. Perhaps I'll have to write to the Nat. Archives to find out what it means.

 

Gillian, may not be someone's initials as both of your examples seem to end with F3. Just a thought.....

 

I agree, Margery. I'm not even sure it's an F because it's back to front. To me, it looks more like a crossed "continental" 7, but then that would hardly have been used in the UK, so not very likely. I posted the same query in the Great War Forum, on two different forums - and elicited no reply of any kind!!! So many thanks to Lost Cousins members for at least trying. I've now thought of someone who may have the answer - the Keeper of the Essex Regiment Museum in Chelmsford, who's been a major source of info re Dad's army career. So I'll write to him and let you know what he says. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

VERY SORRY I didn't mean to send all those images; I pressed 'post reply' by mistake! I was just collecting different examples of the letters to see if I could work something out. I can't and now give up. Peter may well be right about the room or department. I think EF could possibly, just possibly, mean Expeditionary Force. Anyhow, I'll write to Ian Hook at the Essex Reg. Museum and see what he says. Sorry once again about sending the above.

 

I've now had the reply to my question about "label prepared by EF3" (which is what the mysterious words do indeed turn out to be). This is what Ian Hook wrote: "I assume this to be some sort of issue or accountancy form for the medals and the label I assume to be for the envelope in which they were despatched to the intended recipient.
Some were still serving in 1920-21, some were by now civilians and had to have medals sent to a home address and for those who died the next of kin had to apply for the medals and an address supplied. There was much accountancy in naming some 5 million sets of medals, sending them out and recording those which were returned by the GPO, Police, householders and well-intentioned individuals."

 

Gillian - Many thanks for pointing out these records - I hadn't realised that they had been added to Ancestry.
I have found the record for my Grandfather which causes me to ask if anyone can explain the way he is recorded. There is virtually no information for any of the entries on this sheet but for some reason my GF has what looks like ONR written in the first column and also has 5 additional lines of "information" added to the basic details. Any explanations or even guesses would be appreciated - other than a copy of his medal record I have no information about his war service.

 

Most mysterious!
For modern records you would say something got stuck and it kept repeating, but obviously someone has typed the identical info in again and again. I do see, though, that much the same thing happens for both Shufflebotham and Donnelly, i.e. entries with lots of 'ditto' marks.
Maybe you could follow Gillian's example and see if someone at the Shropshire Regimental Museum can explain.

 

Thanks for the link Liberty - I will give that a try.

 

Another place you could try is the Great War Forum though I hasten to add, I didn't get an answer there.