Why was my grandfather decorated by Lady Churchill?
Q According to a newspaper clipping, my grandfather was decorated by Lady Churchill in the Second World War.
However, despite several years of trying, I can find no other sources that make reference to this award. I can see from the photograph that he is wearing some form of medal or badge on his band, but it doesn’t appear to be a usual war medal.
Can you offer any clues? Susan Marguet
A The issuing of any official medal to a member of the armed forces should be recorded on their service record, and the one you provided shows that Alfred received the War Medal, Defence Medal, 1939–1945 Star and the France and Germany Star. Service records are rarely perfect so I also checked the London Gazette using his service number (6097658) in case a gallantry or other award had been missed, but nothing emerged.
Turning to the photograph, although you say he served in the Pioneer Corps, the cap badge Alfred is wearing belongs to the East Surrey Regiment and, on examining the service record, Alfred served with them between July 1941 and January 1942, so the photo must have been taken in that period.
During this time, he was serving at 001 Internment Camp (presumably as a guard), which was in the Oratory Schools in Stewarts Grove, Chelsea, so probably the photo was taken near there. It may be worth you checking London newspapers for the time.
The cross-like device that Mrs Churchill (as she was known at the time) is presenting isn’t a standard medal, although it does resemble some Red Cross awards. Clementine Churchill was chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund (which raised millions of pounds), so I suspect that Alfred has made a small donation and been given a cardboard or paper badge as a reward. It’s the kind of subject that a newspaper would like, and the informal setting suggests that it’s a humorous caption.
The Red Cross is currently updating its online collections database, which includes images of the kinds of stickers and badges that were used during campaigns. I can’t check to see if such a badge was used during the Second World War, but the site should be running again shortly at bit.ly/redcross-collections. Phil Tomaselli