Naming on WW1 Medal Trio

[Spitace41]

Hi all. I recently picked up a trio of WW1 medals. The British War Medal and Victory pair are both correctly named to 29428 Pte. E. F. Bowman, Ox & Bucks Light Infantry. The 14/15 Star is named to 11618 Pte. E. Bowman, Somerset Light Infantry.

At first I thought that these were likely to be medals to family members, possibly siblings, and I have found the MIC, medal roll and SWB roll for the pair. However I can find nothing on the recipient of the 14/15 Star. Upon looking closer at the reverse of the Star I can make out a faint but very definite F immediately following the E in the name. With this in mind, is it possible that a mistake was made in naming the Star? Could this is in fact be a trio to the same man who served with both the Somerset Light Infantry and the Ox and Bucks?

Any comments would be appreciated. Cheers.

[Jerry B]

the 1st bn somerset light infantry went to France in time to be awarded the 14/15 star and the army number is within the block for them, I found another Bowman with number 11035 who was there at that time and got the star.

I could not find your man

[Spitace41]

Thanks for that Jerry. I have yet to come to grips with number allocations. It is just frustrating as I have been able to find at least an MIC for every other medal I have. I would be content if it wasn't for the ghost of an F on the Star.

[Jerry B]

Thanks for that Jerry. I have yet to come to grips with number allocations. It is just frustrating as I have been able to find at least an MIC for every other medal I have. I would be content if it wasn't for the ghost of an F on the Star.

also some diagonal scrapes.

I have a 14/15 star obviously renamed to a man for whom I could find no evidence he was awarded it, it did happen.

I would be inclined to think his records are just being hard to find. You have got his SWB roll, does that or the War/Victory roll not tell you anything useful, sign up date, bn etc....

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi, I do not want to tread on toes here as this has not been an area of my collecting for at least 20 years! All I will say is that the pair look great, but the 14-15 star really is not showing a consistent wear pattern in comparison? As Jerry rightly states, those diagonal scrapes would really concern me personally, also it's "tarnish" is much heavier than the pair. It really looks out of place to me, but I leave a conclusion to the more "up to date and knowledgeable" WW1 medal collectors. Leon.

[Spitace41]

I had considered that the Star was re- named, the only thing that made me doubt this was the fact that the re-named medals I have seen have been a lot more obvious than this and was attributing the scratch marks to something else. But having said that I have not seen it all.

As you say Jerry, "self awarded" medals did occur and I find researching such things quite interesting. I have a 1914 Star to an officer who was court martialled and had his medals forfeited. Although he was only entitled to the 1914- 15 Star he had served as a naval officer for a number of years before joining the Norfolk Regiment and Trench Mortars during WW1. He clearly felt that all this service was deserving of some kind of award and it is possible that he chose the 14 Star to make him stand out a little more.

On the condition of the medals, I am still on the fence as to whether the Star could be to a relative given the different conditions. It is likely that they were stored separately.