Mr. W. Rolls. 20 Victoria Road, Hythe, Kent. Medal entitlement

Here is one of those puzzles for those who enjoy some lateral thinking.

I have been given a dozen empty WW2 medal boxes and I am researching the original owners. Some have been easy to identify, as you get a name. an address and a Record Office location as part of the package, (pun intended).

In this case (pun not intended), despite compiling a list of 44 people with the same initial and surname, I am no nearer to solving the puzzle.

Let me start with the basic facts. The recipient's name was Mr. W. Rolls. The address was 20, Victoria Road, Hythe, Kent.. I have checked the 1939 Register and no one by the name W Rolls was living there in 1939, so presumably he moved there after being demobbed. There are two names redacted on the house entry, so it is possible that he might have been living there, but there is no way of telling.

The Kent address would suggest that he had a connection with Kent and may have been born there. There appear to be no males with the surname Rolls and the initial W, whose births were registered in the county of Kent between 1900 and 1925, so he presumably moved there for work after the war.

The medal box has the issuing office listed as, Infantry Records, Preston. A quick look at a 1930s Army List shows that the following Infantry Regiments had their Pay and Record Offices at Preston.

The King;s Own, The King's Regiment, The Lancashire Fusiliers, The East Lancashire Regiment, The Border Regiment, The South Lancashire Regiment, The Loyal (North Lancashire) Regiment and the Manchester Regiment.

So W. Rolls must have been serving with one of these regiments when his medals were issued. I believe that it may have been possible for him to have served in another regiment before being posted to one of the above, as I understand it was the final regiment served with during the war that issued the medals. I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

Here is the medal box.

 

What is good about this particular medal box is that it is not empty. it contains some empty packets, a note and a medal entitlement slip. The note has the same hand written number as on the back of the box and, the entitlement slip has the number of medals and clasps written in the same hand writing and in the same black ink. I am confident that they are original to the medal delivery packet.

 

Unfortunately, the medal entitlement slip does not show which five medals and one clasp W Rolls was awarded.

He must have had a 1939/45 Star and perhaps a Defence and War Medal, leaving two Stars and one Clasp. These last two are likely to be the Africa Star and Clasp and the Italy Star or possibly the Africa Star and Clasp and either the Burma or France and Germany Stars.

 

Theres a W Rolls in Ox & Bucks but transferred to 1st Kent Regt

Name: W Rolls
Service Date: 1920-1935
Service Place: India
Campaign or Service: India
Regiment or Unit Name: Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Regimental Number: 203219


Might not be the right age

TD

 

Here is my list of possible candidates so far, before the clearly impossible ones are removed.
Rolls William Henry 1900 Bristol
Rolls William George 1901 Pontypridd
Rolls William Charles 1904 West Ham
Rolls William Thomas H 1904 West Bromwich
Rolls William George 1904 Basingstoke
Rolls William 1904 Maidenhead
Rolls William 1904 Leighton Buzzard
Rolls William Christopher 1905 Fulham
Rolls William Arthur 1905 Edmonton Died1907 age 2
Rolls William 1905 Cambridge Died 1905 age 0
Rolls William Frank 1905 Wycombe
Rolls William George 1907 Weymouth
Rolls William Henry 1907 Staines
Rolls William Thomas 1907 Camberwell
Rolls William Henry 1907 Pontypridd 1Died 984 Isle of Wight. Age 77
Rolls William Henry 1907 Leeds
Rolls William Henry J 1907 Bristol
Rolls William Albert 1908 Died 1982 Richmond on Thames
Rolls William Charles 1908 Staines
Rolls William Charles 1909 Weymouth Died 1975 Weymouth
Rolls William Willoughby 1909 Weymouth Died 1965 age 56
Rolls William 1910 Epsom Died 1910 age 0
Rolls William 1910 Liverpool Died 1910 age 0
Rolls William A 1910 Basingstoke Died 1957 age 47. Rochford, Essex
Rolls William George 1911 Cannock. Prison for House breaking 1944
Rolls William E 1911 Farnham Died 1911 age 0
Rolls William G 1911 Salisbury Died 1912 age 1
Rolls William Thomas Edward 1914 Edmonton Sgt. RAF. D.F.M. Battle of Britain pilot?
Rolls William 1915 West Ham 1915
Rolls William G 1915 Bedwellty
Rolls William G 1915 Fareham
Rolls William J H 1915 Pontypridd
Rolls William D 1916 Brackley
Rolls William F 1917 Pontypridd
Rolls William R 1917 Prestwich Died 1918 age 1
Rolls William Daniel 1918 Walsall 4349502 4915933 1/6th S Staffordshire Regiment. Wounded 07/08/1944
Rolls William Edwin 1918 Prestwich Fined December 1944 for Motorcycle offences. (Out of the army 12 months) 902537.R.A.? C.M.P.
Rolls William E 1919 Merthyr Tydfill Died 1924 age 5
Rolls William Arthur 1920 Wantage
Rolls William Davis 1920 Brentford, Died 1940. 62039199. Middlesex Regiment. KIA 1-2/06/1940
Rolls William H 1922 Portsmouth
Rolls William A F 1922 Shepton Mallett
Rolls William H J 1923 Shaftesbury
Rolls William H L 1923 Wilton
Rolls William 1925 St Olave. Died 1982 Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

None of the have an obvious Kent or Preston Record Office connection.

This list is just of the William Rolls, there are one or two Walters and Wilfreds that I will add in due course.

If anyone knows of a W Rolls who fits the criteria please let me know.

 

Thank you. T.D,

that particular W Rolls was discharged in 1920 so he may have been too old for WW2 service.

 

Does the box say Mrs W Rolls?

 

Tony,

it is possible, but that would mean the medals being a) sent to his widow, b), his wife/widow who had remarried and was now Mrs W Rolls, c) his mother (Mrs Rolls) or, d) his married sister also a Mrs Rolls. In any of these scenarios we need a Preston Infantry Records Office connection.

Simon.

 

I have found two casualties whose medals would have been issued by the Preston Infantry Records Office and who have a connection with Hythe, Kent.

3599187 Pte William Owen, 2nd Btn Border Regiment. Died India 20th February 1941, age 23. Son of Clara Owen, husband of Mary Elizabeth Owen, Hythe, Kent. Buried, Kirkee War Cemetery, India.

Mary Elizabeth Owen, could possibly, having lost her husband in early 1941, remarried a Mr Rolls by the time that her first husband's medals were issued. I can find no record of this marriage.

7021146 Pte Cecil Francis Cobb, 1st Btn, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. KiA 27th January 1944. age 21. ANZIO. Son of Harry and Mary K Cobb, of Hythe, Kent. He doesn't appear to have been married.

 

Hi,

I’d exclude the 2nd Border man since as he died in 1941 he likely couldn’t have accumulated 5 medals and a clasp as per the document sent with the medals by Preston Record office.

Steve

 

Agreed, I am just trying to close off any possible candidate however unlikely they are. In any event there is no record that his wife remarried a Mr W Rolls.

My thought is that the medals were sent to Mr W Rolls, who having served with a Lancashire regiment, happened to give his home address as Hythe, due to living and working in the area after the war, and not because he had a childhood family home there.

The 1939 register shows mixed occupancy for 20 Victoria Road, Hythe, so rooms were probably let out individually.