Military Chat

I have discharge certificate numbered M/88?D/L?317 discharge numbered 17294

for a Sgt William Henry Tucker, of Machine Gun Corp, Royal Scottish Fusiliers.

Specialist Qualifications One Red Chevrons, four Blue nil wound stripes and mentioned to in dispatches to Sir H Haige 10/7/19????
Enlisted Stratford 11th November 1903 and date if discharge 31st March 1920?
How can I find out where he served, and what he was mentioned in dispatches for?

I also have his character certificate, but neither seem to bare his army number

17294 seems to be his Service No:


Name:
William H Tucker

Regiment or Corps:
Royal Scots Fusiliers, Machine Gun Corps

Regimental Number:
7867, 17294

7867 was his RSF Regt No and 17294 his MGC No

Where did he live and when was he born?

This is the relevant page of The London Gazette.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31446/supplement/8742

If you work back through the pages to p8739 you can see the beginning of the supplement, but it doesn't say why anyone was mentioned in dispatches.

There were multiple battalions of the RSF, each with their own WW1 history.
You need to know which battalion he served in. His service record should give the dates he was TOS and SOS his units (taken on strength, struck off strength) and name those units.

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/the-royal-scots-fusiliers-in-1914-1918/
gives a brief summary for each bn, with a link to the appropriate division at foot of web page.
The unit's war diary says on a day by day basis what each unit was doing. Ancestry has the war diaries of most units online, available for page by page download.
The content of a WD can vary considerably - I just looked at 1917 for the 1/5th bn DLI (43 pages -my wife's gt uncle's unit); the 447th field coy RE in the same 50th div (185 pages - my grandad's unit) and the 13th bn in 1st Can Div (520 pages including appendixes - my dad's cousin's unit).

For MGC, check out:
http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/machine-gun-corps-in-the-first-world-war/

The WD might say why he was mentioned in dispatches.

thanks for the info so far, The london gazette shows he was in the 3rd Battalion at the time of the mention in dispatches. However, there is not mention why.

It appears that he was a "professional soldier" but seeing has he inlisted on the 1903 and he was perhaps 18 or 19 at the time at was in pretoria and was bicyle orderly to the field marshall commaning in chief South Africa. . He as in the lst Royal Scots at that point. Does this mean that he shifted battalions, I know he served in france, as we have also found embroided cards from your soldier daddy in France. one embroided with the machine gun corp badge. I do now that he was gassed at some point, and had to resort to weeing on his handkerchief to help minimise the distress. He suffered thereafter with on going chest infections.

What do Chevrons mentioned in the earlier question relate to?

Many thanks

One meaning of the word chevron is the V-shaped badge on the sleeve. The ones on the upper half of the sleeve usually denote seniority, so a lance-corporal will have one, a corporal will have two, etc.

I have also seen pictures with them just above the cuff, but I don't know enough about the army to tell you what they mean. Possibly length of service?

I'm sure someone on here will know - or try Google.