Genealogy Chat

When someone signs up for the Army and lists next of kin, does that legally apply to any medals issued after the death of the soldier? Please see below for the full story...Thanks

My friend recently asked me about this issue and as I was unable to help her I thought that maybe a military or legal brain might be able to clarify a few things. My friends great uncle was KIA in WW1. On his sign up papers he listed three people as the next of kin - his parents and my friends grand father. Having spent five years trying to track them down and having been given a lot of red herrings, she has finally worked out who has them. Her fathers cousin is in possesion of the medal and death plaque but will not allow anyone from the family to look at them and refuses to let anyone into his house. Now, as her grand father was listed as next of kin on the sign up papers, does this apply to the medals that were issued to him? Her father is the eldest child and would therefore be next in line. The cousin in question has lied to her for five years and had told her that the medals were thrown into the Thames, sold for scrap and at one point said they had been buried with the soldier. As a matter of interest, is there any legal leg that she could stand on to acquire these medals? Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.....Lauren

It may be that ownership changed after someone's death. Did the parents pass their son's medals onto someone in the family? Did any of them leave a Will?

Ithink I am right in saying, the medals would would form part of his estate and have gone to whoever received that, unless they had been bequeathed separately to someone else. Unless there was a will stating otherwise, the estate of an unmarried serviceman would have gone to his parents, they would have been free to give them or leave them to whoever they wished. Jennifer

Lauren, Jennifer is correct in mentioning the bequeathing of possessions in subsequent wills. But what happened to the medals in the first place? Well, they were sent to the surviving serviceman or his next of kin. That was in the early 1920's. Who that was may not now be certain (good reason why the ww1 medal index cards should not be destroyed. It may show where his medals were sent on the back of the card, but which side was not microfilmed!) As a means of trying to ascertain next of kin info you might like to check with the CWGC, who should have a record of who his next of kin were (at least in relation to his burial/commemoration details and where they were sent). That may even appear on his commemoration details on the searchable CWGC website. Ian