AN INTERESTING & ENIGMATIC
1914 STAR TRIO
&
1911 CORONATION MEDAL
To:
8700 Pte. R.T. COOK 4/Royal Fusilliers.
Private Cook is turning out to be a very interesting man. He joined the Army in 1911 and entered France with his WW1 unit on 11th November 1914.
When we obtained his medals they included, an MM , a 14 Star Trio and a 1911 Coronation medal, a two clasp George V. I.G.S. and a single clasp George V "Iraq" G.S.M. (to RGA)
The pair and "oddly" also the 1911 medal are officially impressed, the MM and the two campaign medals were privately engraved and Cook was not entitled to them.
However ! .....Cook has two MICs which show service in both R.G.A. and R.FUS. An additional note on the R.FUS, MIC shows "Medals Forfeit"
So! ......What we have here is a totally correct pair and a 1911 coronation medal (all officially impressed) and a 1914 Star (privately engraved) which, with his pair is shown as being issued on his MIC , but later "forfeited".
This means that he had his 1914 Star forfeited, but clearly the Army eventually relented (or forgot) his original forfeiture and sent him his War Medal and Victory Medal pair !
Some time after the war, Cook further clearly thought (having been badly wounded twice) that he was entitled to not only wear the 1914 Star that was probably never issued to him, but also felt that he's put up an MM and two good looking campaign medals !!
(He also had the miniatures to all these on a bar !)
His papers state :
Wounded in Action 1914 (Gunshot wound to head)
Wounded in Action 1915 ( Gunshot to ankle )
Discharged 20.12.1916
(No longer fit for duty with little movement in his ankle and totally deaf)
We love groups like this as they have a history that goes above "value" and reflect the real feelings and attitudes of the men who fought for them. (We've also never seen an officially impressed 1911 Coronation Medal before ....have you ??)
An Interesting lot .
£195