More medal madness

**Jerry B** · 01-06-2015, 05:32 PM

I seem to have become addicted to buying great war medals, partly because you get so much potential for finding out about their original recipient, though not always.

I have 3 singles from split groups on the way to me.

First is 14/15 star to John Thompson #19021 Welsh regiment, I have his mic and medal roll from the net and I think that is it for him, he was 13th (2nd Rhondda) sevice Bn Welsh regiment and they were part of 114th Bde 38th Welsh Div, seeing action as so many welshmen did at Mametz Wood.

I have one to a welshman who served as a Gnr with the RFA, whom I as yet no little about except he was from Newport S. Wales and was only 18 when he joined in 1916, but his pension/service papers are coming with the medal and they list him as going AWOL twice and being in hospital twice with Gonorrhea, so he had an interesting war! His name is Clifford Bullen #112384, ATTESTED 21/10/1915 AGED 18 YEARS 2 MONTHS. BORN NEWPORT 16/8/1898. LIVED 90, REDLAND STREET, MALPAS ROAD, NEWPORT

Also today bought a Victory Medal - 34807 Sgt William Lawrence Jones I know a lot about him but it does not included his MIC or any other documents. I could get his mic from the national archives but they send you that horrible photocopy of multiple people which just don't look as nice as the version you get from ancestry, so if anyone could have a look on there for me and see what they can find that would be greatly appreciated, especially if they can then post what they find.

Born in Aberystwyth area in 1884. Lived at Ponterwyd. By 1911 was boarding in Aberdare and working as a miner. Enlisted in 1915 for the Welsh Regiment and survived the war. Eventually returned to Ponterwyd as a Postman.

With a couple of paragraphs of information from the Jones' daughter about her father's life which I obtained when I purchased the medal a couple of years ago.

From my notes
Born in Aberystwyth area in 1884. Lived at Ponterwyd. By 1911 was boarding in Aberdare and working as a miner. Enlisted in 1915 for the Welsh Regiment and survived the war. Eventually returned to Ponterwyd as a Postman.

"He was a native of Ponterwyd and after the war went to live in south Wales with his new wife working in the mines as a coal miner. It was there that they had their first child, a girl. Life in the south Wales valleys was hard in those years as you can imagine, and in 1925 they returned to Ponterwyd and lived in Broncastell where they had two further children (making it two girls and a boy). He became a part time postman in Ystymtuen and Ponterwyd."

**Jerry B** · 01-06-2015, 06:16 PM

Medal and MIC for Bullen which has 6 pages of docs coming with it.

**Jerry B** · 01-06-2015, 06:17 PM

Medal and MIC and medal roll for Thompson J Welsh regiment

**Jerry B** · 01-06-2015, 06:18 PM

Victory Medal - 34807 Sgt William Lawrence Jones for whom as yet I have only what is above, I don't even have a pic of the medal, though it is coming from a reliable source so that does not worry me.

Also have this from the seller from the person he bought it from,

"as I understand it he lived in Ponterwyd just outside Aber. Her mother's first husband was killed in action in Morval in 1918. She remarried (Will)after the war and had two daughters, both of whom are alive and well. A short biograph of her mother's first husband, Richard Clement Richards, can be found on my website of Ceredigion war memorials. He is commemorated in Ystumtuen"

Not really relevant but here is the memorial to his wifes first husband Coflein

**paul kennedy** · 01-06-2015, 06:45 PM

Here's his MIC.

**paul kennedy** · 01-06-2015, 06:57 PM

Here's his medal roll and Silver War Badge roll.

**Jerry B** · 01-06-2015, 06:58 PM

Brilliant Paul, that gives me his battalion # so I can research where they served, though as it only lists the 3rd Bn which was the reserve Bn and stayed at home it does not help me as much as I might have hoped. Good news though it confirms he was entitled to a 14/15 star trio