MEDAL INDEX CARD
The medal index card is your starting point. These are kept on microfiche at the PRO and you can serve yourself. The order is alphebetical by surname, after that by christian names. If you have several men with the same name the order then goes by regimental order, ie Engineers, Artillery,Cavalry Guards and then line regiments in number order, ie Royal Scots (1st Foot) then Queens (2nd Foot) E.KEnts (3rd Foot) and so on. So you can look up a name and examine all the cards for that name which will give you all the possibilities for that name, if you are looking up a John Smith who you know nothing about i'd forget it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The above example is George Moon. The card here gives his name.To the right of that the regiment, which was The East Kent R, they have also added that it was the 1st Bttn, this is occasionaly entered but not usually. All transfers would have been added underneath, I have seen men who served in 4-5 regiments, but George Moon stayed with the Buffs. The next column gives rank, the first entry is the one in which the man gives service number, many had their service number changed during the war, all territorials did in 1916, the number listed along side the regiment,sp from this part of the medal index card you can accertain all, regiments ranks and numbers issued. Moving down to the bottom left of the index card you see the column medal. Next to that is the roll and page, in the medal column the 15 has been added to the star indicating that Moon was entitled to the 14/15 star, not the 1914 star. Te Roll reference E/2/2 B4 next to the star entry. Basically, the E/2/ is the reference for the East Kent Regiment 1914/15 star book B4 means book 4, in the page column 309 is entered which means Moons entry is on page 309. Above the star entry is the British War and Victory entry. That gives a similar code for the files for the E.Kent Regiment, and the page number, the War and Victory Medal Roll is the same book. You can tell what a man is entitled to from this section. If Moon was only entitled to the BWM and Vict medals there would be no roll entry of book reference against the star, this would be left balnk. Also in thi corner of the card is a hand written reference "SWB list E/571/2", this tells us that Moon was issued a silver War Badge and this is the roll reference for the Silver War Badge Roll. This is really worth looking up using this reference. Below that is the "theatre first served in", in other words which place did the man go first, many men went to Egypt first and then back to France and vice versa, but the first landing (Egypt) thats registered. There is a number reference also is 1 for France, 2B for Gallipoli, 5 Asia with 5c being Mesopotamia, 5a india etc. The last peice in the left hand corner is the date of entry in Moons case 17-8-15. The last section in the bottm right gives comments, in Moons case Dis 8-6-18 which means he was discharged 8-6-18 hence the award of the SWB. Other entries can include Disemb and a date which means Disembodied on that date, or Class Z or B and a date which means discharged to Class Z or B reserve. Occasionally you see a prisoner of War reference, this happens only in men who are awarded the 14 star and who were POW in 1917. Other comments can be the award of MM, DCM or MID with a LG date.
Rumour has it that on the back of the cards the address of the recipient was included, but as the backs of the cards were not microfilmed we shall never know.
go on British War and Victory medal Roll
Go on to the Silver War Badge Roll