Medal Index Cards

The 1914-1920 records of First World War medals can be searched online at the National Archives.  Along with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, this is a useful source of information on British servicemen. While the CWGC information is free, excerpts from the National Archives cost £3.50 a time.

Herbert's Medal Index Card, along with his unit, rank and serial number, lists the common set of medals for a serviceman of the First World War: the Star, Victory and British War Medals. Over 2.5 million such trios were issued and were known irreverently as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred after popular newspaper cartoon characters of the time.

The qualifying date for the medals is the date at which the serviceman arrived in the theatre of war. In the case of Herbert it was 9th September 1915 in France.

Redford's Medal Index Card shows he entered France on 24th July 1915 and has a different format but similar information:

Cornelius's index card is different again:

The index cards show not only which medals they qualified for but also where the entries could be found in the official Medal Roll. In the case of Cornelius, this was F/A/826, shown here: