WWI Mons Star trio Somerset Light Infantry

[Watchdog]

Good afternoon gents,

Here is a nice group complete with the ribbon bar and rosette that I was lucky engough to snap up for around 30% below book price.

I haven't collected British medals to any great degree so far and would like to start researching the ones I have when I have time. If anyone here can give me any info regarding this group I would be very grateful but what I really want to know is which are the best online resources to use (I just can't afford to take a whole day visiting Kew every time) so that I can do it myself without relying on the goodwill of the members here;



Regards

Mark

I think it interesting that even though these medals would most likely have been issued at the same time the star is impressed with battalion and regiment whilst the other two are impressed with just the regiment. Maybe this is due to the star bein instituted some two years befor the other two? Unless the star was issued on its' own?

[bananamafia]

Here you go mate.
I always use ancestry.co.uk but im sure others may have better/cheaper ways.....

[paulscoot]

Nice grouping , I find these WW1 trio's stirring & evocative ! Regards, Paul

[Watchdog]

Thanks for that much appreciated,

I figured that Ancestry.co.uk was likely the answer!

Looks like I need to find his silver wound badge now, you never know your luck.

The forwarding address on the records made me take a step back. I lived for a while in a street called Mountain Ash in my home town of Rochdale when I was a kid!

I feel a bit of a project coming on.

Regards

Mark

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[Watchdog]

Nice grouping , I find these WW1 trio's o stirring & evocative ! Regards, Paul

I agree and I deeply regret the lack of acknowledgement that prevailed for so long after "The Great War".

When I was a kid there were plenty of these old soldiers living amongst us as neighbours in just about every street. One near neighbour of mine was an old boy I just knew as Mr Rushton. As kids we regarded him as a curious old bloke at the end of the street. This was about 1965 some fifty years after the battles of 1915 and he was in his 70's then. We were never really told about what these men had endured and unless provoked it would never occur to us kids to ask. He was such a nice old bloke and he thought he was giving us something luxurious in a spoonful of honey which we found disgusting LOL! How it grieves me now that I was never able, mostly though childish lack of intelect, to talk to him and learn from him about those incredible events.
It wasn't the fashion to speak out then and now it is too late, yet I feel that had I asked he would have talked much more easily to a youngster.

RIP Mr Rushton, I am paying attention now!

Regards

Mark

[Jerry B]

A very fine 14 star trio with clasp and rose.

If you are lucky his service papers and pension records might survive on ancestry and gis 14 star roll. Interesting he lived in Wales, mountain ash is not too far from Cardiff, you might find him on the 1911 census as his name is not that common for the area.

[Paul D]

I agree and I deeply regret the lack of acknowledgement that prevailed for so long after "The Great War".

When I was a kid there were plenty of these old soldiers living amongst us as neighbours in just about every street. One near neighbour of mine was an old boy I just knew as Mr Rushton. As kids we regarded him as a curious old bloke at the end of the street. This was about 1965 some fifty years after the battles of 1915 and he was in his 70's then. We were never really told about what these men had endured and unless provoked it would never occur to us kids to ask. He was such a nice old bloke and he thought he was giving us something luxurious in a spoonful of honey which we found disgusting LOL! How it grieves me now that I was never able, mostly though childish lack of intelect, to talk to him and learn from him about those incredible events.
It wasn't the fashion to speak out then and now it is too late, yet I feel that had I asked he would have talked much more easily to a youngster.

RIP Mr Rushton, I am paying attention now!

Regards

Mark

I was exactly the same Mark with WW1Vets but now we are making the same mistake as The same thing is happening now with our WW2 Vets . Modern kids are too interested at starring at a screen rather than talking to the folk who fought WW2 and most of the Schools Tours only take them to WW1 Battlefields . We'll wait until we reach the Harry Patch of WW2 then we'll encourage our kids to be interested when the last human witness to this part in our History has gone !

[Watchdog]

I was exactly the same Mark with WW1Vets but now we are making the same mistake as The same thing is happening now with our WW2 Vets . Modern kids are too interested at starring at a screen rather than talking to the folk who fought WW2 and most of the Schools Tours only take them to WW1 Battlefields . We'll wait until we reach the Harry Patch of WW2 then we'll encourage our kids to be interested when the last human witness to this part in our History has gone !

Exactly right,

My dad was of the post war national service peer group yet even he and his age group mostly spoke of WWII. I suppose they could relate to WWII because they had been kids for the most part and they experienced rationing, GIs and missing older males. Plus they had Audi Murphy and John Wayne et al to look to right?

To them WWI was barely acknowledged, in part I suppose because their elders just mentioned "The Great War" in hushed tones and the knowledge of that time just was not passed along. During my school days the trendy lefty, beardy weirdy, corduroy wearing, tree hugging hippies that passed for school teachers (I detested most of them) would have bitten off their own tongues rather than teach us anything about that which they considered a period of unpleasantness, oh no wait, they did tell us about the wickedness of the A Bombs dropped on Japan! King Harold and 1066 was good stuff that they could give text book answers about but 20th Century stuff was just too visceral.

Sorry if this makes me sound a bit reactionary or right wing but I do blame that generation of so called responsible people who were in the business of making society better yet actually made it worse!

I suppose it is another example of the saying "Those who fail to remember the mistakes of history ........... etc"

Anyway, end of rant now back to the hobby (they would have something to say about that too!)

Regards

Mark

[Paul D]

I'm your age Mark so fully understand and agree with everything you've said above !

[BobS]

A very nice trio, and I am especially attracted to the 1914 "Star & Bar " groups such as this one. A true "Old Contemptible", from that old Regular Army that fought and held the line in 1914.
The 1st Battn. Somerset Light Infantry landed in France on 22 August, 1914, as part of 11th Brigade, 4th Division.
The War Diary of the 11th Brigade in December noted the battalion's casualties since August as approximately 36 officers and 1.153 other ranks, including 8 officers and 131 other ranks killed.

BobS