The Kings Medal for Courage and the Kings Medal for Service

I've recently been looking at the post war files for the awards given to people who assisted our Special Forces during WWII - a huge task given the size of the files (not to mention the poor condition of some of them. The Kings Medals were an award made by the Sovereign and had similar requirements to an MC or MM ie a proper recommendation passed up through the chain of command - in some cases the award of the KMC was upgraded to a DSO, MC or MBE etc. An interesting point in these awards is that the recommendations made in 1945 were still being sorted out as late as 1953 . . . .maybe later as the files I've been working from in the WO and Air series stop in 1953. SOE awards are profuse in both series of files!

The King's Medal


The King's medal was issued in two versions: The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom and the King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom. Both medals were silver and 36 millimetres in diameter.The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom was introduced on 23 August 1945, to mark the acts of courage by foreign civilians in the furtherance of the British Commonwealth in the Allied cause. It was primarily intended to reward those foreign civilians who had assisted British escapees in enemy occupied territory. The medal's obverse has the crowned profile of King George VI, with the text "The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom" on the reverse. The medal's ribbon was white with two narrow blue stripes in the centre and two broad red stripes at the ribbon's edges.
The King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom was introduced on 23 August 1945 to mark the acts of foreign civilians in less dangerous roles, but who nevertheless contributed to the British effort. An example of this type of role would be fund raising activities. The medal's obverse had the profile of King George VI, while the reverse had a medieval knight carrying a broken lance, receiving food from a women. The ribbon was white with a central red bar, with a blue stripe on either side.

 

Hello Jedburgh22!

I read your article on the Kings Medal with great interest. I would like to ask if it is possible to find out from the files if a specific person was awarded this paticular medal.
I have recently had a very long discussion with my mother about my fathers active service in the Polish Free Army during WW2, and she said that my father rescued a number of British soldiers in Germany, who were supposed to have been executed by the German soldiers - and for this act he met the King after the war to receive a medal. Unfortunately we cannot find any evidence of this, and would dearly like to verify the story. We've got the usual War medals / stars but cannot find a Kings Medal, so I'm trying to sort this out. Also, my father has now passed on, so I'm trying to get this done for my mum, as well as finding out some crucial part of our family history

Thank you for reading this

Rob


Any information you have would be extremely useful to us.

Thank you

 

I would have thought these were gazetted?

 

Hello Jedburgh22!

I read your article on the Kings Medal with great interest. I would like to ask if it is possible to find out from the files if a specific person was awarded this paticular medal.
I have recently had a very long discussion with my mother about my fathers active service in the Polish Free Army during WW2, and she said that my father rescued a number of British soldiers in Germany, who were supposed to have been executed by the German soldiers - and for this act he met the King after the war to receive a medal. Unfortunately we cannot find any evidence of this, and would dearly like to verify the story. We've got the usual War medals / stars but cannot find a Kings Medal, so I'm trying to sort this out. Also, my father has now passed on, so I'm trying to get this done for my mum, as well as finding out some crucial part of our family history

Thank you for reading this

Rob


Any information you have would be extremely useful to us.

Thank you

Rob,

What was your father's name??

Mark

 

Here is a pic so we know what we are talking about

 

This has come up before. When I was discharged due to my injuries, I was awarded the "Kings Medal" it was described as "The kings medal" on the correspondence that came with it. Why i recall it so clearly, is the accompanying note reminding us that we were still liable for military service....!

 

Cheers DBF. That was the thread. But there is a significant difference. That medal shown in the posting had the words "For service rendered" While the one I have has the legend "For Loyal Service" To be honest, I never knew there was a difference...

With King George "GRI" in the centre. I have worn it in my lapel for 67 years.
It was rumoured back in 1945, that they would be replaced by a larger silver medal..But it never happened.
Cheers
sapper

 

Here is a pic so we know what we are talking about

That's not what Brian is talking about.

Check the link Diane has posted.

 

Assam has posted an image of the medal inJedburgh22's initial post of this thread, and Sapper is talking about another "medal/badge" which according to the link provided by Diane, was referred to as the 'King's medal'.

Mark

 

Hello,

My fathers name was Jan Sojkowski, dob 21.05.1921

Regards

Rob

 

Hi Rob,

I have had a look at the National Archives to see if I could locate a list of recipients of either of the medals, the records are there, but don't seem to have been itemised. This is a link to the results of my search, but someone will need to spend time checking things out.

The National Archives Search Results

Mark

 

Hi Rob,
He is not on the first list that I have transcribed onto Exel (three more files to input onto the spreadsheet0 will let you know if he turns up.

Steven

 

Thank you very much for looking - very much appreciated!!

 

I've recently been looking at the post war files for the awards given to people who assisted our Special Forces during WWII - a huge task given the size of the files (not to mention the poor condition of some of them. The Kings Medals were an award made by the Sovereign and had similar requirements to an MC or MM ie a proper recommendation passed up through the chain of command - in some cases the award of the KMC was upgraded to a DSO, MC or MBE etc. An interesting point in these awards is that the recommendations made in 1945 were still being sorted out as late as 1953 . . . .maybe later as the files I've been working from in the WO and Air series stop in 1953. SOE awards are profuse in both series of files!

The King's Medal



The King's medal was issued in two versions: The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom and the King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom. Both medals were silver and 36 millimetres in diameter.The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom was introduced on 23 August 1945, to mark the acts of courage by foreign civilians in the furtherance of the British Commonwealth in the Allied cause. It was primarily intended to reward those foreign civilians who had assisted British escapees in enemy occupied territory. The medal's obverse has the crowned profile of King George VI, with the text "The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom" on the reverse. The medal's ribbon was white with two narrow blue stripes in the centre and two broad red stripes at the ribbon's edges.
The King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom was introduced on 23 August 1945 to mark the acts of foreign civilians in less dangerous roles, but who nevertheless contributed to the British effort. An example of this type of role would be fund raising activities. The medal's obverse had the profile of King George VI, while the reverse had a medieval knight carrying a broken lance, receiving food from a women. The ribbon was white with a central red bar, with a blue stripe on either side.

I assume this is a picture of the The King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom. This is Comete guide Florentino Goikoetxea's award.
John

 

Hi Rob,

I have had a look at the National Archives to see if I could locate a list of recipients of either of the medals, the records are there, but don't seem to have been itemised. This is a link to the results of my search, but someone will need to spend time checking things out.

The National Archives Search Results

Mark
Thank you for looking - after reading your post I had a look in the National Archives as well, re your link.
So far, I have spent quite a bit of time going round and round in circles - file references leading to other files, which in turn lead to more files - but never a list of names anywhere!!

Meanwhile, I shall keep on trying...............

 

Hi Rob,
He is not on the first list that I have transcribed onto Exel (three more files to input onto the spreadsheet0 will let you know if he turns up.

Steven
Hello,
If I can help - I'm more than happy to wade through large files - if you could point me in the right direction!!!!
Thank you

Regards

Rob

 

Thank you for looking - after reading your post I had a look in the National Archives as well, re your link.
So far, I have spent quite a bit of time going round and round in circles - file references leading to other files, which in turn lead to more files - but never a list of names anywhere!!

Meanwhile, I shall keep on trying...............

Jedburgh (http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/special-forces/36015-kings-medal-courage-kings-medal-service-post406598.html#post406598) is transcribing lists that he has, check with him.

 

I also spent a lot of time at the National Archives without much success. You can find details of awards made to Military personnel but not to civilians who aided evaders etc.
Finally I had success when I made an FOI request to the Cabinet Office who hold the lists of recipients by country. I was able to obtain copies of these lists for the countries that I was interested in (Netherlands and Belgium) but they have consistently refused (under Section 23) to provide details of the citations. I have appealed this decision to the Information Commissioner but sadly it is a blanket ban and no matter how rediculous it may appear they will not budge.

John

 

Some of the citations exisit just takes time to ferret them out - I intend to adjust those I hav into national groupings but it all takes time to get done.

Steven