Ossett WW1 Medal Winners

Hundreds of thousands of men who served with the armed services, some women and some civilians received at least one WW1 medal. There are two main kinds of WW1 medal awards: campaign medals and gallantry or meritorious service awards.

A Campaign or a War Medal was awarded to an individual if he or she took part in a military campaign outside of the United Kingdom in a Theatre of War or in a time of war. Generally a serviceman or woman could be issued with a maximum of three of these campaign medals.

These Campaign medals were the 1914 Star or 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal and each was impressed with the name of the recipient and usually included some or all of the following: service number, rank, first name or initial, surname and military unit (Regiment or Corps).

All men and women who served their country in times of conflict were heroes. Many were known to have gone beyond the call of duty. Some of those men and women were awarded medals for a conspicuous and gallant act of valour in the presence of the enemy.

The highest award (Level 1) for Gallantry is the Victoria Cross. There is no evidence of such an award to a man or woman from Ossett but several are known to have received;

* the Distinguished Conduct Medal (D.C.M.) was the first official medal award to recognise an act of gallantry in the field by a member of the armed forces who was below the rank of officer. It was the other ranks’ equivalent of the Distinguished Service Order. (Level 2 Gallantry Award)

* the Military Medal ( M.M.) was awarded to other ranks of the British Army and Commonwealth Forces. (Level 3 Gallantry Award)

* the Military Cross (M.C.) was awarded to commissioned officers with the rank of Captain or below or Warrant Officer. (Level 3 Gallantry Award)

The stories of those Ossett men are included here.