Military Chat

sorry if this is a silly question but is it possible to obtain a medal card for the second world war. my husbands dad was Arthur Taylor Whiteley from Barnsley Yorkshire and we would love to find out his war story .
any ideas would be welcome.
sheila

You or your mother would have to apply to the MoD for his records.

Your mother would get them for free (with proof), you and other family members would have to pay £30.00.

Someone will I am sure attach the PDF for the form you fill out and send to Glasgow.

It can take up to 10 months for the records to come back (sometimes less) and those records required for current or recently serving staff take priority.

However, if you do know which regiment his was in, the best place to find out where he served and what his regiment did in WW2 is the Regimental Diaries.

These are kept in one of three places

The National Archives at Kew
The Imperial War Museum
or within the Regiments own Archives/Museum.

His war records may not actually tell you very much. DoB, Next of Kin, his medical records, where he was posted (not what he did), any record of misdemeanours and all the general information kept by the civil services. In some very exceptional circumstances there may be more, but this is very rare.

Hope this helps a little :-)

The form you need is probably this one
http://www.veterans-uk.info/pdfs/service_records/army_kinship.pdf

You can just write to the address on the form, but do need to send supporting certificates

The preceeding page with other options is this
https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records

Actually, assuming his death was registered Jun 1989, you may not have to prove kinship, but should send a copy of his DC.
This is because his death was over 25 years ago.
.................
Request for service records of deceased service personnel

Under the scheme, and in recognition of the duty of care owed to the family of the deceased subject, for a period of 25 years following the date of death of the subject and without the consent of the next of kin, MOD will disclose only:

surname
forename
rank
service number
regiment/corps
place of birth
age
date of birth
date of death where this occurred in service
the date an individual joined the service
the date of leaving
good conduct medals (for example, Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (LS&GCM)), any orders of chivalry and gallantry medals (decorations of valour) awarded, some of which may have been announced in the London Gazette

After this period, and if it is held, in addition MOD will disclose without the requirement for next of kin consent:

the units in which he/she served
the dates of this service and the locations of those units
the ranks in which the service was carried out and details of campaign medals awarded

I'll remind Sheila how to find the replies to her query :-)

sorry to appear ungrateful for all the kind help I thought I had added a note of thanks however I must have made a error .
I will be trying to apply for Arthur's details using the advise given fingers crossed I don,t mess that up.
thank you again for taking the time to help me I am sorry I made myself look so bad mannered
regards sheila

Don't worry Sheila, this site confuses many folk at times. Glad you have made it back and found your replies. Cx :-)