My thanks go to Lucy London (again!) for bringing to my attention this fascinating set of medals which was offered for sale by Dix Noonan and Webb Ltd of Mayfair in July 2019.
The impressive set – note those for 1939-45 too – belonged to Maj. C. E. Browning who served with 8/South Wales Borderers in Salonika on the Doiran Front (22nd Division). The group includes the Distinguished Service Order, awarded for Major Browning’s command of a night raid on ‘Flat Iron Hill’ on 12/13 July 1918. Brief details of his career and the circumstances of his award are in the extract from the auction catalogue, below. These can also be read in the catalogue online (page 15).
Hi my grandad was with the 2nd battalion Cheshire regiment when to salonika from France ww1. Was he awarded the salonika medal as it was not put on his medal card thanks
Hello Douglas – thank you for your comment. Sadly there was no specific Salonika medal. If there had been a First World War equivalent of the Italy or Burma Star, then researching Salonika service personnel would be much easier! There was talk of adding battle honour/campaign bars to the British War Medal – and I have seen an unofficial example – but that never came to anything and would have been a nightmare to implement, although a boon for family historians. The 1914 and 1914/15 Stars are quite useful as they put a soldier overseas in a particular period. 2/Cheshire was in 28th Division – as was my grandfather – so he probably has the 1914/15 Star showing an arrival on the Western Front in January 1915. He will also have the more common British War Medal and the Victory Medal: ‘Pip, Squeak and Wilfred’!