Matching medal to medal card

[guybrush]

Hi,

I hope someone here can help me. I have the medal of my great great uncle. Family knowledge is that he died around the time of ww1 but of what, no-one knows. We all thought his name was Matthew Moran and the census seems to confirm this but the medal just says 1934 PTE M Moran IGDS. I looked on the medal roll on ancestry for 1934 and Moran and all there is is a Michael Moran. The M for Michael is in red pen and the ichael is in blue.

The list of KIAs in the Irish Guards in the appendix of 'The Irish Guards in the Great War Vol 2' by Kipling also says Michael. Also his war grave in Le Touret aparently says Michael (according to CWGC).

Now is this an error by both the Military and Kipling?

I'm confused.

[KiteRunner]

The CWGC site has him down as Michael too:
CWGC :: Casualty Details

You should be able to find his death registration listed in the "overseas" section on Findmypast and you would then be able to order his death certificate, but assuming it says Michael on that index then the actual death cert probably won't tell you much.

Do you know when and where he was born, so you can look for his baptism or birth registration and see what it says there?

[guybrush]

Thanks I'll have a look on Findmypast. I think someone assumed he was Michael on the medal card as he was Irish and everyone else got the wrong info from that.

[guybrush]

Ah, it's a pay for service :(

Another odd thing is on the medal card it says died 18/5/1918 but CWGC and Kipling says 18/5/1915

[annswabey]

I assume that's the name he enlisted under for the Army for whatever reason. Perhaps when Ancestry get up to the M surnames or you can look his service records up at Kew, if they've survived, they might shed some light.

[Mary from Italy]

I would try posting this query on the 1914-18 forum - there are some very knowledgeable people there, and there may be someone with access to Irish Guards records who could tell you more.

The Long, Long Trail: the story of the British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918

[KiteRunner]

If you're thinking that someone wrote Michael on his medal index card as a guess from just seeing the initial M, because of the initial and the rest of the name being in different handwriting, I don't think that's what happened - a lot of the medal index cards have an initial written on and then the rest of the name added later. Probably the system started on just initials and then they realised it wouldn't work very well without the full name and added them in. As I said, if you look for his death registration on findmypast you will be able to see what it gives for his name on there (plus confirm what year his death was registered). They also have "Soldiers Died in the Great War" on there and it only includes one Matthew Moran (from Oldham) and several Michaels, including a few from Ireland.

[guybrush]

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a go on 1914-1918.net as well.

I see what you mean about the initial, I just assumed they were done after the war and he was just another card to fill out for the administrators and they weren't that carefull.

I wonder why Matthew signed up as Michael then? I guess I'll never really know why.

[Guest]

have pmd you , found his death on findmypast

[guybrush]

Great, thanks!! I've pmed you my addy.