The National Fire Service, the Auxiliary Fire Service and the Home Guard were probably all dealt with through the Home Office. ISTR that at sometime a great many records were destroyed when one of the offices was gutted by fire - but that might be WWI records.

An organisation called The Orders and Medals Research Society seem to be the focal point for the finer points of medals etc. Might be worth asking the question of them.

O-D

TTH,

As you are familiar with the fine city of Shrewsbury, you might seek out a shop called 'AWARD', which sits somewhere on or near the main drag. They specialise in medals, their mounting and framing and a whole lot else.

They are, however, heavily in to the Bling Medal market which might make them just a tad suspect!

O-D

Thank you all for the amazingly quick and helpful responses - how typically PPRuNe!

A number of avenues there to pursue; I have Pa's records to prove his service - AFS initially, he joined the Monday morning after War was declared - so now need to get the medal(s).

I'll report back idc. Thanks again. :ok:

To claim or replace UK medals this link is very useful

https://www.gov.uk/the-ministry-of-defence-medal-office

TTH - lucky you have the records. As O-D said, a lot of records were apparently lost in a fire - ironic really. Any records my parents had will have been dumped, along with a carbon copy of a report my uncle wrote to Gen Allenby about the activities in the desert of one Col Lawrence!

As WWII medals were not named you could just buy a Defence Medal from a dealer.


Aaron.

It was WW1 records. In September 1940 the War Office Depository was badly damaged by fire during the Blitz, leading to the destruction of around 60% of service records from the Great War. Pity they never thought to move them to that cave in Wales alongside the stuff from the National Gallery, etc.

Wander00
Small world !


My Step-Grandfather, Stephen Aldhouse, was a Leading Fireman from Harrow and mainly in London during the blitz. On one night his fire tender was destroyed by a bomb and he was the only survivor, being blown through the front entrance of St Thomas Hospital. It would have been a good plan to have himself delivered directly into the hospital foyer except it was a baby hospital.


I have his medal, cap badge and belt buckle in a box in my shed, let me know if you want me to dig it out

Sir PHLC - did you see the series Tony Robinson's did on TV about the effects of bombs on rows of houses? they interspersed wartime images, one of six appliances parked at the side of the street. All were burned out. We had a copy of the photo at home, but cleared out by Mum after Dad died, without our knowing. One of the appliances was the one Dad had been driving that night. Ernest Lough was on TV in 81 (I was watching on the OM ante room TV at Binbrook) interviewed by David Jacobs ("Where are they now" the programme) and EL told the story of the night the City (and City Temple) were blitzed in almost identical words to my Dad's before he had died in 1974

Wander00, I think I did, some time ago.


Like many of his generation, Grandad Steve didn't say much about his service.


Once he spoke about entering houses that had been near a bombing (and presumably a firestorm), and finding people, for example, sat frozen around the dining room table, dead through oxygen starvation.


He told the St Thomas Hospital story a few times as he had to explain that the glass windows and doors of the hospital blew in, a fraction of a second before he followed.

Neither did Pa - I guess they just got on with it.

Those of a nervous disposition look away now

One thing he did say that stuck in my mind was recovering bodies entombed under rubble. Often their fingers were worn away, in futile scrabbling against the rubble before they died ..... :(