Help Needed with Boer War/WW1 Medal Group and Index Card.

[Falschirmjager]

Hi just wanted to know if any of the experts here could help shine some light into the Boer War/WW1 medal grouping my wife bought me for Xmas. The medals are as follows Queens South Africa medal with Transvaal, Orange Free State and Cape Colony clasps, Kings South Africa medal with South Africa 1902 and 1901 clasps both named to 3456 Pte A Curtis South Staffordshire Regiment.
His WW1 medals are the standard three yet the star is named 8593 Cpl A.A Curtis North Staffordshire Regiment
The War and Victory medals 8593 A SJT A.A Curtis North Staffordshire Regiment. So he started off with rank of private during the second Boer War and made Corporal and then Acting Sergeant during his service in WW1.
I managed to locate the WW1 Medal Index Card for 8593 Corporal and Acting Sergeant Albert A Curtis and just need some help to interpret its meaning as it has "RFC" on it along with North Staffs does this mean he had served at some point with the Royal Flying Corps or does this mean or refer to something else??? First theatre of operations is given as "MEF" anyone know what this refers to. Any help would be most gratefully accepted as the wife spent a fair bit buying these for me this Xmas and I promised id do as much research as possible on them. Hope you can help and thanks for looking. Please see pics of the medal group and index card 8593 Albert A Curtis is the one in bottom left.

[Falschirmjager]

Sorry guys the medal card wont upload for some reason so will have to photograph it and re-post.

[Falschirmjager]

Attachment 921908

[MSlusa]

I'm no expert but think that MEF could be the theatre of opps which could be The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which was formed in the early part of 1915. It does appear that he may also have served in the Royal Flying Corps but maybe further research through Ancestry could assist with this.
Good luck

[Richie B]

As far as I can see the only Battalion of the North Staffs to serve in the Middle East was:-

7th (Service) Battalion
Formed at Lichfield on 29 August 1914 as part of K1 and came under orders of 39th Brigade in 13th (Western) Division. Moved to Tidworth but by January 1915 was in billets in Basingstoke. Moved to Blackdown (Aldershot) in February 1915.
Sailed from Avonmouth in June 1915 and landed on Gallipoli next month.
January 1916 : Division evacuated from Gallipoli and moved to Egypt.
July 1918 : Brigade transferred to North Persia Force.

The Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment) - The Long, Long Trail

They landed at V Beach Gallipoli on 13 July 1915 having arrived at Lemnos on the 12th. This more or less co-incides with his date of entry to the Theatre of War shown on the MIC. [Info from War Diary on Ancestry]

[Walkwolf]

Very nice set - Congrats.........!

[Jerry B]

Very nice to have the full set of Boer war and great war medals. The rf c does mean he later moved to the air force.

[Watchdog]

Yep, MEF is The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and covered Galipoli and Salonika.

Just a couple more bits as "every little helps" as they say!

13th Div was part of IX Corps.

The KSA and QSA were awarded together in most cases which is one of those bizarre qwerks of British medal award policy that we all love!

The RFC connection will be interesting to discover. That being the forerunner of the RAF initially all RFC personnel were recruited from volunteers already serving in existing units.

Regards

Mark

[thorne83]

RAF record.

Cheers, Tom

[thorne83]

Service record.