Tag Archives: medals

20Feb/16

WW1 Campaign Medals

Every soldier who participated in WW1 received a maximum of five medals. Because of the complexity of the system of awarding service medals, and the fact that receiving one (eg the 1914 Medal) would cancel a soldier’s entitlement for another (in this case the 1914-15 Star) meant that most soldiers received three. They were not actually awarded until the 1920s. The most common were 1914-15 Star for those who enlisted in those years, the General Service Medal and the Victory Medal.

I have found the records of 72 soldiers and one woman, Ethel M Tearle, a daughter of Houghton Regis. This list does not include the navy or the air force. The total is actually 71 individual soldiers, but one (Herbert Tearle) enlisted as a soldier, then again as a medic, so he is listed twice. This list therefore contains 73 names.

I have recognised the names of almost all these soldiers, but a few have proven too complex to unravel. Perhaps time will illuminate their identity, and I shall be able to fill in the gaps.

Here, then, is the list Annotated WW1 Campaign Medals