And another medal ! It's beginning to look as if medals to the Bedfordshire Yeomanry are quite common. This one is the British War Medal to Private 1773 William Sargent which was on a dealer's list. William was born in Bedford in 1890, in a large family that originated from Turvey, including his brother Sidney, who also served in the BY. William went to France in January 1916 after enlisting in May 1915. His service record hasn't survived but he did, thankfully. He stayed in the Bedford area and died in 1963, aged 73. Can you provide any more information about William or the Sargent family ?
|
Unusually for the BY, it's been an active month in terms of medals surfacing. Latest 'show' was the pair and school football medal to 31067 Private Fred Pattison. Fred was born in 1893 in Northampton and was part of a group of men from the Northampton area who enlisted into the BY in late 1915 and early 1916. Because Fred only served with the BY abroad after March 1917, when territorial numbers changed, we only know his post-1917 number. Research shows, however, that he would have enlisted into the 2/1st BY in November 1915 when his number would have been about 2260. Fred earned his football medal in 1907 when aged 13 or 14 for the 'Northampton and County School sixes'. Fred lived in Monks Hall Road in the Great War. He married Elizabeth Willerton in 1915 and his death was registered in Northampton in 1959, when aged 65. It's great to see that Fred's medals have survived, a reminder of a man who volunteered to serve King and Country. His pair is the 27th I have noted to the BY over the years.
If you have any more information about Fred or the Northampton 'sixes', do let me know ! Thirteen Territorial Force Efficiency Medals carrying the bust of Edward VII were awarded to the Bedfordshire Yeomanry (all awarded in 1910 and 1911). After a period of several years without sight of any of the medals, three surfaced recently. These were the medals to Private Herbert Whitworth from Bedford, Sergeant Richard Oliver Ashby from Flitwick and Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant William Herbert Jordan. The first two men went on to earn medals for service in the Great War, Herbert with the 5th Bedfords at Gallipoli and Richard with the Beds Yeomanry in France. 'Bert' Jordan, the son of the founder of Jordans milling enterprise over at Biggleswade, was not allowed to serve abroad after failing a medical in 1914 and he was awarded a silver war badge. His medal is, therefore, a singleton.
If you know of any other efficiency medals awarded to the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, do let me know ! Welcome to the website. You can use this part of the site to raise or discuss anything BY. If there are any topics that you think might be worth discussing in this way, let me have suggestions. I'll update it as and when events occur.
|
AuthorI'm David, a medal collector and researcher. I've been collecting and researching the Bedfordshire Yeomanry for many years. I also collect interesting items to the Bedfordshire Regiment Archives
April 2017
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed