[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Canuck

That is a wonderful achievement . When researching medals I have of course downloaded a number MICs but not anywhere near your numbers . My father was a WW1 infantry man in France with the Black Watch . Unfortunately his records did not survive the Blitz ,not even in the burnt records . I was able to obtain the sections of his unit war diary 1/7th Black Watch that related to the various actions in which he participated , including the day that he was wounded ,July 1918.

I have also researched two brothers in the 1/9th Argyll and sutherland Highlanders , a unit that was virtually wiped out at 2nd Ypres in April1915 . I have managed to obtain the CWWG records of all of those KIA, most are commemorated on the Menin Gate . I had the privilege of visiting that Memorial a couple of years ago .

Regards

Canuck

Hi Canuck
I've attached a couple of pictures I hope, in July 2007, my friend Bill Turner (Accrington Pals) lay on his death bed in hospital, he was thanking me for all the research I'd done for him, when he said how many were really casualties at the Somme, Bill had always wondered as the war diaries never gave true figures, I said Ok Bill
I'll be back. spent 24 hours going thro the files, collecting names adding a mans picture where I could, printed it all out, I was just getting ready to take it to show Bill, when his daughter rang to say he'd just died July 5th 2007, almost to the time the Pals were relieved from the trenches after the slaughter of July 1st, I put it away until 2014, when I asked my daughter about commemorations for the Pals, asked her if she could arrange something in France for July 1st 2016, I then spent some time checking and rechecking, then having every thing bound in leather with presentation boxes, and the rest is history, the Mayor of Bapaume was so taken up that they had been remembered, that he presented my grandson with an inscribed medal, granting me the freedom of Bapaume, Even tho Bill had been dead 9 years his name is in those books as co author. Bill and his books on the Pals put Accrington on the world map.