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Suggestion Please

E

EmmaR

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I have a photo of a great uncle taken in 1919 when he was in France with the Machine Gun Corps cavalry. So far, so good - we know he survived the war.

However, we can't find a medal roll for him - if he was joining up from Birmingham, and didn't join the Royal Warwickshire - anyone got a good idea which regiment he might have aimed for? The most likely medal roll is North Staffordshire - joining MGC after the armistice.
 
Emma.....if you can....upload a copy of the photo to the forum....someone might be able to tell what regiment he was in.....?
 
EmmaR, As far as I am aware ........No such unit as The Machine Gun Cavalry...MMC means the Machine Gun Corps.If you have his name and know what Regiment or Battalion he was in you are half way their ........but if he has a common name it gets harder as you can only search the Medal Rolls by name.........What Regiment he was in does not dictate where they came from........he could be a Brummie and join a Welsh Irish or Scottish Regiment........the choice was his and who was recruiting at the time he enlisted or was called up and put in a Regiment.
Another point is why would he have joined up after the Armistice ?
 
Hi

I don't think I've been very clear, so to try to clarify.

The Machine Gun Corps association have identified the cap badge, and uniform on the photo for me as Machine Gun Corps Cavalry, who were a small, even more select group within the MGC.

The MGC did not recruit direct, it cherrypicked from other regiments, therefore it is possible that he joined one regiment, was on active service during WW1 with that regiment, and then was cherrypicked to MGC around or just after the armistice. This suggestion is borne out as of the 10 possibles of his name in the medal roll, none served in the MGC. To add further difficulty, he was registered as Harry Vokes Hodgkiss at birth, but the family dropped the Hodgkiss at some point, so he could be there as vokes, or hodgkiss (our best guess in Hodgkiss as the photo identfies him as HH).

I think I am destined to draw a complete blank on this one - however part of photo (not showing HH) attached.
 
Sorry, wrong photo. thought the smaller version had been saved.
 
EmmaR the badge is the Machine Gun Corps badge and were you are getting confused is once you where in the Machine Gun Corps they had different divisions Infantry, Calvary, and Motor
As you could be in any regiment and be a Lewis Gunner and would be identified by a cloth arm badge
Now your chap was in the Machine Gun Corps but as you can find no trace of him he could have been transfered to another regiment as a Machine Gunner ....Have you any paperwork because you are struggling without knowing the correct name
 
No, no paperwork at all. Think I'll have to leave that one -the best suggestion I have had is that he transferred to the Machine Gun Corps too late for it to show on the medal roll - this from their regimetal association. The machine gun corps badge is a red herring, I downloaded it from another site to look at it after the cap badge in the photo was identified, and posted it here by accident.
 
EmmaR , I was intrigued by your post .

Had a quick look on the National Archives and found only one H Vokes -

Medal card of Vokes, H
Corps:Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Regiment No:1460
Rank:Lance Corporal...
1914-1920WO 372/20

There are 10 records for H Hodgkiss ( none for H V Hodgkiss) but the first three are duplicated records.

Medal card of Hodgkiss, H
Corps:Royal Garrison Artillery
Regiment No:22456
Rank:Corporal1914-1920
WO 372/24

Neither may be ' your man' but it certainly seems to narrow it down a bit.
The Medal Rolls at the National Archives cover up to 1920 , so one of these could be him pre MGC. Don't give up the hope.

Ian.
 
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