two ww1 medal roll cards??

[bananamafia]

Hi everybody i am currently doing a little bit of a ww1 project for the village school.
Its a bit of an unusual one, as it has two ww1 memorials, one is the boys that didnt come back, but the other more unusually has all the names of the men that went to war and came back (i dont think i have ever come across one like it)
anyway, whilst I have been going over the work ive done so far, and one man in particular -Abe Garfield, the brother of one of the fallen soldiers and appears to have two medal roll index cards. I assumed that he would be the one in the Tigers as his brother Ben Garfield was in that regiment.
However, I looked at the cap badge in the Photo of Abe i found (Joseph Abraham) and could see that it had no tiger it is artillery which matches with the RGA card. Could anyone shed any light on these for me? is there any chance he could have been in both regiments? Why does he have two regimental numbers for the Leics Reg. ? What does the “Returned” mean?

many thanks in advance
Ed

[Mark Holden]

Is it possible that two men named Joseph A Garfield served in WW1? I can see no other reason for two separate cards unless the same man served with the Leicesters left the Army then re-enlisted in the RGA.

[bananamafia]

thankyou mark,
yes it could be two different people. any ideas on why the one for the leicesters is marked with "returned"?

[Mark Holden]

Yes the recipient may have moved address or they were not signed for at the address. Medals were sent out by registered mail to the address provided by the soldier.

regards

Mark

[Jerry B]

From How to interpret a British medal index card of 1914-1918?


Returned

The remarks “Rtd”, “Retd” or “Retd undisposed of” sometimes appear on cards. Soldiers did not have to apply for their medals – they were automatically sent out. Sometimes the man (or his next of kin, if he had died) had moved and the medals were not deliverable. They were then returned to the Medals Office. Sometimes an error was made in the rim inscription, and the soldier returned them for re-issue.

[bananamafia]

thanks guys,
so would it have been possible for both of the cards above to be for the same soldier having served in both regt, and by error he had been sent out both sets?
choosing to return one?
bit of a long shot i know.