Gallantry medals and other awards are comparative rarities and they are well documented. If the soldier you are researching won such an award, your chances of finding something about his service from the announcements are very good.

Sources of information

The award of gallantry medals was always notified in the London Gazette. This is now online and searchable, although it is not easy to achieve a high "hit rate". All I can say is - persist. If a name search does not work, try his number, regiment, home town, or a combination of these things. If he won such an award, he is there somewhere.

The London Gazette is the official newspaper of the State, which has existed since 1665 and is still published today. An invaluable resource for WW1 researchers, as it carried information concerning officer's commissions, honours and awards, Commanding Officers despatches and much more. An extensive index to the Gazette, as well as microfilmed copies of each publication, can be found at the National Archives.

There are indexes to these awards, held on microfiche at the National Archives.

The gallantry awards were often recorded in the man's unit war diary.

Local newspapers carried stories of men receiving everything from the MM upwards. Post-war, many books were published that gave whole lists of men who had received such honours. Modern researchers have added to the list in their great work on, for example, the Pals battalions - but overall the coverage is still only for a relatively few units.

A general note

While many gallantry awards were made to recognise a specific act and were granted as an "immediate" award, large numbers were granted in the New Year's Honours and King's Birthday Honours lists. These awrads tended to be in recognition of a period of sustained gallant performance, rather than a single act, and many went to those men who were not in a position to carry out spectacular acts - the unsung men of the transport, artillery, ordnance and engineering, for example. The New Year's Honours were listed as on 31 December or 1 January, and the King's Birthday Honours at 3 June each year. Those gazetted on 3 June 1919 are said to have been in the "Peace Gazette", as this issue approximately coincided with the conclusion of the Peace Conference at Versailles.