The Wartime Memories Project - The Great War

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233733 Sgt. Joseph Henry Joel MM. British Army 1st Btn. Royal Fusiliers from:Harrow Joseph Joel served with the 1st Btn. Royal Fusiliers during the Great War. My Grandfather appears to have been in various battalions of The Royal Fusiliers over the years. He was in the1st Battalion for Tibet in 1903-4 and by 1911, he was definitely in the 2nd Battalion in India for the 1911 Census. He got married to my Grandmother in Colchester on 1 Dec 1914, so it looks like he returned to England earlier than the rest of the 2nd Battalion His medal card shows that his first theatre of war was France and he arrived there 1st June 1915. (The dates indicate that he was probably in 8th Battalion after he returned from India) which is backed up by his record card which shows a discharge date of 5th Dec 1918 as a Sgt and his unit is showing as 8/R. Fus My Grandfather was awarded the MM. Whilst we have found the entry in the London Gazette where the MM was awarded, we haven't yet found the citation. It appears in the London Gazette dated 19th March 1918 (published on 15th March 1918). A very brief entry on page 3465. If anyone could help me track down the corresponding citation I would be hugely indebted to you. Gerry Chandler Add to this record.    Additional Information: Joseph Henry Joel who served in 1 Bn, 2 Bn, and 8 Bn, Royal Fusiliers. There is a Supplement to The London Gazette dated 19 Mar 1918 which states,   ‘L/7510 Sgt J. H. Joel, R Fus (Deptford)’  recording the award of the MM which was in 1917 at Cambrai. Charles Messenger’s book Brief But Glorious published in 2007 confirms this, listing my grandfather’s award of the MM (page 169). L/7510 L/Sgt Joel J. H. 30/11/17 Cambrai (LG 15/3/18) The museum says: There are no surviving citations for the Military Medal.   The London Gazette of 19/03/1918 contains awards of the Military Medal mainly for the operations at Cambrai in November 1917. Our grandfather’s award isn’t mentioned in either 8Bn’s or the Divisional War Diary in 1917 but there is an entry in 8Bn’s War Diary on 11/01/1918: ‘Twelve NCOs and men awarded Military Medals (or bars) for distinguished conduct during the Cambrai battle’. A researcher was only able to identity 11 men from 8Bn in that Gazette but all of the evidence points to our grandfather as being one of the ‘Twelve’ men from the War Diary.    8Bn appears to have been in action on 20th, 24th and 30th November and the award could have been for any of these actions, (subsequently proven as 30 Nov 2017). Gerry Chandler, Stoney Stratton 8 Dec 2022 @ 2053. Gerald Chandler Reply Related Content: 1st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? If so please let us know. Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?" We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages. The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers. This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved - We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.