Великобритания медаль Экспедиционные силы 1918

[сергей66]

Здравствуйте.Что можно о медали сказать ?

[сергей66]

?

[сергей66]

А что по этой медали ?

[Алексей Дмитриевич]

Спортивная медаль за победу в соревнованиях по прыжкам в высоту. Получил Private Harry Badland (личный номер 59017) из роты C 57th Battalion Machine Gun Corps.

Вот его карточка:

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D1105353

 

57th Battalion MGC с февраля 1916 г. по февраль 1918 г. была самостоятельным подразделением, с 14 февраля 1918 года вошёл в состав 19th Battalion MGC. Эти подразделения входили в состав 57th Brigade 19th (Western) Division.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/19th-western-division/

[сергей66]

Спортивная медаль за победу в соревнованиях по прыжкам в высоту. Получил Private Harry Badland из роты C 57th Battalion Machine Gun Corps.

Вот его карточка:

https://discovery.na...ails/r/D1105353

 

57th Battalion MGC с февраля 1916 г. по февраль 1918 г. была самостоятельным подразделением, с 14 февраля 1918 года вошёл в состав 19th Battalion MGC. Эти подразделения входили в состав 57th Brigade  19th (Western) Division.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/19th-western-division/

 

Спасибо.

[cmf]

This medal, and the man by whom it was won, intrigued me, so I have fleshed out the life and military service history of Harry Badland in greater detail.

 

Henry ‘Harry’ Badland was born on 27/06/1887, in the civil parish of Oldbury, county of Worcestershire, to Henry Badland (1840-1915), a labourer, and Emma Louisa Badland (née Haddleton) (1860-1898). Oldbury was an urban district, part of the growing metropolitan conurbation that had grown up at the intersection of the counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and which surrounded the commercial and industrial centres of Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton.

 

By the census of 1901, Badland was still living in Oldbury, with his siblings and widowed father. His occupation was listed as ‘brick yard labourer’, while that of his father was now described as being a ‘coal dealer's labourer’. Badland married local girl Emma Elizabeth Kerr (1883-1967) on the 28/04/1908; at the census of 1908, his occupation given as a ‘carman’ (i.e. driver of a horse-drawn transport vehicle), employed by a wholesale greengrocer in Oldbury.

 

Although Badland’s service record no longer survives, we can piece together his military service from other documents, and the surviving records of those of his comrades who shared similar service numbers.

 

From his pension records, we can see that Badland initially enlisted into ‘The South Staffordshire Regiment’, with the service number 29636, indicating an enlistment date of late November/early December 1915. Given this enlistment date, and Badland’s marital status, it is highly likely that he attested under the ‘Group System’, i.e. the new military service scheme introduced in Autumn 1915 to aid recruitment. Commonly known as the ‘Derby Scheme’ after Lord Derby, the then Director-General of Recruiting, the ‘Group System’ was the last attempt, using a ‘carrot and stick’ approach, to increase voluntary enlistment before conscription became inevitable.

 

The ‘stick’ was the threat that voluntary enlistment would soon end, and that its replacement, compulsory service, would mean no choice for a man as to the regiment or corps in which he served; therefore, many who enlisted under the scheme saw it as the last chance to choose their local infantry regiment.

 

The ‘carrot’ was the opportunity to enlist but then return to civilian life until mobilisation was necessary (‘Class A’ service), although a man could always enlist and join the ‘Colours’ immediately (‘Class B’ service).

 

The ‘Class A’ option was particularly popular amongst married men, and all those deferring service were categorised by status, i.e. married or single, and by ‘group’, i.e. date of birth. The point was made repeatedly that no ‘group’ of married men would be mobilised ahead of any ‘group’ of single men.

 

As we have said, Badland most likely enlisted under the ‘Derby Scheme’. Moreover, however, he also most likely opted for ‘Class A’ service. Now, there is a chance he opted for immediate service, but it is unlikely, given the fact that it then took 15 months for him to be posted overseas. Instead, it is most likely his route followed closely that of a fellow soldier, who also initially enlisted into ‘The South Staffordshire Regiment’ (as no. 29615) in late November 1915, and who eventually became no. 59014 in the ‘Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)’.

 

This man, Private Charles Reading, had enlisted under the ‘Class A’ provisions of the ‘Group System’, and was not mobilised till July 1916. After a month of basic training, at the Regimental Depôt of the S. Staff. R. at Lichfield, in Staffordshire, he was posted to the ‘3rd (Reserve) Battalion’ of the regiment. The 3rd Bn was at this time stationed at Earsdon, county of Northumberland, where it formed part of the Tyne Garrison. In late September 1916, Reading was transferred to the infantry branch of the ‘Machine Gun Corps’, and posted to the ‘Machine Gun Training Centre’, at Grantham, county of Lincolnshire.

 

Badland’s ‘group’, no. 34, for married men born in 1887, began to be mobilised from the end of May, 1916.

 

The ‘Machine Gun Corps’ (M.G.C.) had been established in late 1915, its infantry and cavalry branches being formed by simply re-badging the machine-gun sections of existing infantry battalions and cavalry/yeomanry regiments as M.G.C., and forming them into permanent Brigade Machine Gun Companies or Squadrons. However, from 1916, when ‘second-line’ ‘Territorial Force’ infantry divisions, hitherto limited to home defence in the United Kingdom, were committed to the Western Front, the M.G.C. required rapid expansion to form new units. The reserve infantry battalions (composed of men undertaking basic training, or convalescing from sickness or wounds), stationed in the United Kingdom, were inspected by officers of the M.G.C., with suitable men being compulsorily transferred to the M.G.C. (Infantry). This is the most likely route by which Badland (and Reading) entered the ‘Machine Gun Corps’.

 

The Medal Rolls indicate that Badland first crossed to France and Flanders as 59017, Private, M.G.C. Given the fact that he was transferred to the M.G.C. in late September 1916, it is more than likely that he embarked for the Western Front as an original member of the 170th, 171st, 172nd or 173rd Machine Gun Companies. These companies had been raised in October 1916 as the new machine companies of the ‘170th (2/1st North Lancashire)’, ‘171st (2/1st Liverpool)’, and ‘172nd (2/1st South Lancashire)’ infantry brigades, part of the ‘57th (Second West Lancashire) Division’. This ‘Territorial Force’ division, hitherto assigned to home defence, embarked for France in February 1917, including its three M.G. companies. In March, 1917, the 173rd Machine Gun Company was raised and attached directly to the headquarters of the 57^th Division, to act as a divisional M.G. reserve.

 

In early 1918, the decision was taken to amalgamate the M.G. companies of infantry divisions into single battalions, taking the divisional number. The four M.G. companies of ‘57th (Second West Lancashire) Division’ became the Headquarters and ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies of the ‘57th Battalion, M.G.C. (Infantry)’, on 01/03/1918.

 

The 57th Battalion’s War Diary shows that 57th Divisional Sports were held on 21-22/07/1918, at Bois-de-Warnimont, in the commune of Authie, département of the Somme, France. The 57th Battalion, M.G.C. was entered in all the competitions held. No other similar events are recorded in the War Diary, so it was most likely here that Private Badland, of ‘C’ Company, won the medal for the ‘High Jump’.

 

After the armistice, the ‘57th (Second West Lancashire) Division’ began slowly to demobilise, and had fully disbanded by July 1919. The ‘57th Battalion, M.G.C. (Infantry)’ had disbanded by the end of May 1919, its officers and men having proceeded to discharge or posted to other units of the M.G.C. Badland’s Medal Roll entry shows that he was finally discharged on the late date of 01/05/1920. Unlike many of his comrades, who soon after the armistice had been demobilised back into civilian life as part of the ‘Class Z Reserve’ (liable to sudden recall if hostilities against Germany resumed), Badland continued in service.

 

A reason for his retention on active service might be given by the fact that, at discharge, he held the rank of ‘Temporary Corporal’. ‘Temporary’ ranks, for Warrant Officers, Class I or Class II, and N.C.O.s, were introduced in June 1919, purely for use when serving with the Armies of Occupation in Germany, Constantinople, Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia, and only up to the 30/04/1920. In Badland’s case, it meant that as a Private holding the appointment of Lance Corporal, he could be temporarily promoted one rank above, i.e. to Corporal, to fill a vacancy in a unit, but would retain the rank even if that vacancy was subsequently filled by a substantive Corporal: this was contrary to the usual practice of ‘Acting’ rank, where if the gap in the unit establishment was at any time permanently filled, the holder of the ‘Acting’ rank reverted to their lower, substantive, rank.  Given the terms of Badland’s ‘Short Service’ enlistment (‘Three Years or the Duration of the War’), we see that he must have volunteered for continuation of service under a scheme introduced in May 1919, whereby men could continue in service, for garrison duties with the Armies of Occupation, up until 30/04/1920.

   

On discharge, Badland applied for, and received, a military pension for two years, having been assessed as suffering from 20% disablement, due to malaria. This might give a clue as to his location during the period 1919-20, i.e. serving with occupation forces in the Middle East. On leaving the army, Badland and his large family lived in the County Borough of Smethwick, adjoining Oldbury. At the time of the ‘1939 Register’, Badland was still resident in Smethwick, his occupation being given as a ‘wholesale fruit merchant’. Henry ‘Harry’ Badland died in Smethwick on 17/07/1951, and is buried with his wife in Oldbury Cemetery.

 

It is of interest to note that Harry Badland’s younger brother, George (1896-1919) was taken prisoner at Cambrai in 1917, whilst serving with the ‘The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)’, but died of illness in the Netherlands in 1919, after being released from German captivity.

 

The photographs below show Harry Badland as a young man, in later years with his wife, and the couple’s gravestone at Oldbury Cemetery.

Изменено 30 декабря, 2021 пользователем cmf

[Алексей Дмитриевич]

That's great! My hat's of to you!

[cmf]

Thank you, Alexey! It's always a pleasure to add some some military genealogical research to a name, and I was glad to put a face to the name as well! 

 

Chris

Изменено 31 декабря, 2021 пользователем cmf