If you joined up in 1914 for World War One then the chances are you were awarded three medals – the 1914 star, the war medal and the victory medal. These three medals are very common and got given common names, Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.
If you didn’t join up in 1914 you just got the two medals without the star and these were sometimes given the alternative names of Mutt and Jeff.
These medals are common and do not normally command all that much value.
We were very recently given a Mutt and Jeff pair.
There we have the victory medal on the left and the war medal on the right.
These medals have the name of the recipient embossed around the edge.
These two bear the name of 30114 private W G Crouch of the Grenadier Guards.
We are not 100% certain who W G Crouch was but we can take a guess. We know they were in the possession of Rose Crouch who lived on High Street in Market Lavington. Her husband had been a village policeman and his full name seems to have been Henry William George Crouch. He was born in 1899 so would not have been of an age to sign up until 1917/18. He would not have been awarded a 1914 star. So we think this was the man who received these medals, but there is a chance it might have been his father.
Any further information would be gratefully received.
Tags: First World War, medals, world war 1
September 24, 2015 at 5:07 pm |
Rog the star Medal you mentioned sometimes called the mons star
Was one of two issued the other one was for soldiers already in the army and served in the British expeditionary force sent over to stop
The German advance into Belgium the only difference is the b.e f
Medal bears the months. ( Aug 1914 Nov )
September 24, 2015 at 8:14 pm |
Thanks for both comments today, Norman.
We are so lucky, as a museum, to have people like you helping us with specialist information
Rog