Here's a great example of British War and Victory Medal roll entry from Ancestry's newly published First World War Campaign Medals collection. I've not actually checked to see if this man's service record survives. If it does, all well and good. If it doesn't - and many do not - then this information contained in the medal roll is crucial.
This particular list of men is on a Royal Engineers' roll issued from the record office in Chatham and not only do we get the men's current regimental details, we also get details of past service. So here we see that William Talbott also served with the Hereford Regiment (with the number 4957) and with the Gloucestershire Regiment (with the number 31991).
The regimental numbers are crucial, and it's one of the reasons I've made a study of these for the past ten years. 4957 for the Herefordshire Regt was issued in April 1916 and 31991 for the Gloucs Regt dates to January 1917. Knowing this means that anyone with an interest in this man's service could quickly identify the appropriate war diary.
I have hundreds of thousands of regimental numbers on my database and I also carry out research into soldiers who served in the British Army (with 1920 as the cut-off date). Drop me a line to paulcanixon@yahoo.co.uk if you need professional help and also see my RESEARCH tab on this blog.
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