What uniform is Frederick wearing in this photograph?
QCan you help me identify this uniform? I think the cap badge could be that of the Royal Artillery, but I’m not certain as it isn’t clear. The soldier is Frederick William Russell Hughes and he was born in August 1897 in West Derby, so he would have been 17 years old in 1914. He looks a bit older here, so I presume it could have been taken in the latter part of the First World War. I haven’t been able to find his military record, so I presume it is one of the ones that was destroyed in the Second World War.
Keith Hughes A This is indeed a Royal Artillery (RA) driver. We get a lot of artillerymen enquiries, possibly because they can be difficult to distinguish from other mounted units, more probably because there were so many of them. The National Archive’s catalogue at discovery.nationalarchives.gov. uk shows more than 700,000 Medal Index Cards (MICs) for artillerymen, almost as many as the next biggest groups the Army Service Corps and the Royal Engineers combined.
Unfortunately, there’s no service record for Frederick and no obvious MIC, nor one for a Driver Frederick William Hughes RA. There are three Driver Frederick Hughes RA – numbers 68222 and 201816, 836450 and 114045. Their MICs and medal rolls may give more information.
The mystery medal may help. The only medal I can find that resembles it is the Belgian Décoration Militaire, a gallantry medal. If this is right then it should have received official approval from the monarch and appear in the London Gazette, which can be searched at thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/ content/100402. Use surname and number for the best result. If nothing comes up it may just be an unofficial unit award of some kind. Do you still have the medal in your family?
1CAP BADGE
The Royal Artillery cap badge can usually be identified by the cannon with prominent crown above and the very long scroll beneath, as here.
2LANYARD
The white lanyard on the left shoulder indicates Royal Artillery, but wasn’t always worn. Some other units wore lanyards of different colours.
3BANDOLIERS
1903 pattern bandoliers were worn by many troops as well as – or instead of – packs, but particularly by mounted men including the Royal Artillery and some Royal Engineer signallers and drivers.
4MEDALS
Medals are always worn on the left breast, but this one is unusual in that it resembles no contemporary British campaign medal (either a star or disc) nor gallantry award. It appears to be a Maltese Cross with something behind and a multi-coloured ribbon.
5BREECHES 6SPURS
Frederick’s breeches and the puttees from ankle to knee clearly suggest that he rides a horse. He sports detachable spurs too.