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  #16  
Old 11-02-18, 09:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by manchesters View Post
Hong Kong personnel, if they met the criteria, would have been awarded the Pacific Star not the Burma Star.

regards
Are you sure about that?

I am not a medals man, and had thought it was a toss up between the Paciific Star and the Burma Star, so I checked it out before I posted.

This being the internet I looked for more than one source, and found three saying that the soldiers who fought at Hong Kong would have got the Burma Star. As you say "if they met the criteria".

Example:

http://www.onlinemedals.co.uk/medal-...als/burma-star
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  #17  
Old 11-02-18, 05:35 PM
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Campaign Stars and Commemorative Medals Instituted for the 1939-45 War, The War Office, 11 June 1948

Pacific Star - qualifying land areas: Hong Kong 8.12.41 - 25.12.41.

Burma Star - qualifying land areas: Hong Kong 26.12.41 - 2.9.1945

Keith
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  #18  
Old 11-02-18, 06:10 PM
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Then I stand corrected.

regards
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  #19  
Old 11-02-18, 06:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fairlie63 View Post
Campaign Stars and Commemorative Medals Instituted for the 1939-45 War, The War Office, 11 June 1948

Pacific Star - qualifying land areas: Hong Kong 8.12.41 - 25.12.41.

Burma Star - qualifying land areas: Hong Kong 26.12.41 - 2.9.1945

Keith
So would a soldier who fought in the Battle of Hong Kong and was then captured and held prisoner in Hong Kong eventually receive both stars? I'm thinking particularly of the late Max Cheng - HKSRA, then PW in Shamshuipo then escaped to China and joined BAAG and then to India - enlisted in the British Army and went into Burma as a Sgt interpreters with 3 GR. He returned to Hong Kong shortly after Liberation and served on as an Interpreter on War Crimes Investigation Unit. Mike
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  #20  
Old 12-02-18, 05:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Jackson View Post
So would a soldier who fought in the Battle of Hong Kong and was then captured and held prisoner in Hong Kong eventually receive both stars? I'm thinking particularly of the late Max Cheng - HKSRA, then PW in Shamshuipo then escaped to China and joined BAAG and then to India - enlisted in the British Army and went into Burma as a Sgt interpreters with 3 GR. He returned to Hong Kong shortly after Liberation and served on as an Interpreter on War Crimes Investigation Unit. Mike
Medals and awards not my field of knowledge at all but reading the source document it would appear that the following was the official practice -

The Pacific Star and the Burma Star were classed as alternative awards. Personnel whose service qualified for both these awards could only be awarded the star for which they first qualified. They wore a clasp to denote they had qualified for the second star, or a silver rose on the ribbon.

So I guess he would only have qualified to wear the Pacific Star, but wore a clasp BURMA on it as well.

Keith
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  #21  
Old 12-02-18, 09:18 AM
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Keith,
Thanks. I should have asked him when we met at Int Corps gatherings in HK.
Mike
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  #22  
Old 12-02-18, 02:17 PM
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Originally Posted by BWEF View Post
I found it interesting that the medal ribbon of the Burma Star you show would not have been worn by the 15th Scottish that fought in NW Europe.

Did the ribbon bar come with the cloth items? I stand to be corrected on this, but I believe that one of the original 1st Middlesex captured at Hong Kong would have been entitled to the Burma Star. Also, more likely to have been wearing metal titles.
Yes indeed, the medal ribbon bar came together with the patches and shoulder title.

I am trying to find out a bit more about the gent in question. I have a name and know that he served for 7 years in the Army and then post-war enlisted in the RAF.
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  #23  
Old 12-02-18, 02:40 PM
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A soldier that was in 1 Middlesex from Normandy until the end of the war should have had the France and Germany Star.

The 15th Scottish did not fight anywhere other than NW Europe. No doubt individual soldiers could have had the Burma or Pacific Star as well, but that is as well, not instead of.

Do you have the mans number? You might be able to tell something from that.
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  #24  
Old 12-02-18, 03:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BWEF View Post
A soldier that was in 1 Middlesex from Normandy until the end of the war should have had the France and Germany Star.

The 15th Scottish did not fight anywhere other than NW Europe. No doubt individual soldiers could have had the Burma or Pacific Star as well, but that is as well, not instead of.

Do you have the mans number? You might be able to tell something from that.
The items shared came together with his RAF Certificate of Service. This records that his RAF service number was 4034167. He served as a MT Driver Mechanic, from 22 Nov 1948 to 21 Nov 1953.

He was a Corporal with the Middlesex Regiment, from 14 Apr 1939 to 7 Nov 1946.

He was William Gatley, born 31 Dec 1918.
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  #25  
Old 12-02-18, 04:01 PM
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Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant his army number.

Army numbers were in "blocks", so it is possible to tell which regiment a soldier first joined. However, you know that information anyway.

For example, my father had a KRRC number as he, and a number of others, ended up in 1st Middlesex when 9th Armoured Division sent people to 21st Army Group.
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  #26  
Old 12-02-18, 04:20 PM
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Originally Posted by BWEF View Post
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant his army number.

Army numbers were in "blocks", so it is possible to tell which regiment a soldier first joined. However, you know that information anyway.
Yes, that is how I understood you. I just do not have his Army number; only the RAF one (which does not tell us anything in this case).

Yes, the evidence points to him having joined-up with the Middlesex Regiment. Even if he joined-up with another regiment and was posted on to the Middlesex Regt, the metal shoulder title still suggests that he was in the regiment from 1939-1940.
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  #27  
Old 14-02-18, 05:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DougSA View Post
The items shared came together with his RAF Certificate of Service. This records that his RAF service number was 4034167. He served as a MT Driver Mechanic, from 22 Nov 1948 to 21 Nov 1953.

He was a Corporal with the Middlesex Regiment, from 14 Apr 1939 to 7 Nov 1946.

He was William Gatley, born 31 Dec 1918.
His RAF number confirms his history.
.
The RAF numbers "block" 4030000 to 4039999 was used at Cardington for regular enlistments from February 1948.
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