Military Cross - details?

[ElizabethHerts]

I was looking at military records for my great-uncle, Kenneth Noel Purkis, and saw the initials "MC" by his name, something I had never noticed before.

I have now found the mention of his award in the London Gazette:

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/30865/supplements/9966

However, it gives no details about how he earned the award.
He was a doctor in the R.A.M.C. (Medical Corps).

His military records haven't helped so far.

http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/1262/30850_A001272-03241/977226?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk% 2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3frank%3d1%26new%3d1%26MSAV%3d1%26ms T%3d1%26gss%3dangs-c%26gsfn%3dKenneth%2bNoel%26gsln%3dPurkis%26cpxt%3 d0%26catBucket%3drstp%26uidh%3dxt1%26cp%3d11%26pca t%3d39%26h%3d977226%26recoff%3d9%2b10%2b11%26db%3d MedalRolls%26indiv%3d1&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord

[Merry]

I have the citation for my great-uncle's MC and for his brother in law's too (he was awarded the MC three times!), but I can't remember offhand where I found them and am not about to get up from my bed to look at the other computer!! However, if no one else has answered by the morning I'll look then for you :D Might have been in The Times possibly?

[Merry]

something I had never noticed before.


Clearly you had too relaxing a time on your recent holiday!!! When I googled his name the first site I opened was us discussing his MC in 2008!! lol :d

[Shona]

GF didn't come up when I googled, but a 1918 edition of the British Medical Journal did - seems he was in Mesopotamia when he earned the MC.

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20335726?uid=3738032&uid=2460338175&uid=2460337935&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=83&uid=63&sid=21102314858487

[ElizabethHerts]

Clearly you had too relaxing a time on your recent holiday!!! When I googled his name the first site I opened was us discussing his MC in 2008!! lol :d

:o:D
Oh dear, I've come back with holiday brain.
I didn't get much from Google, so shall try again!

Many thanks, Merry and Shona.

[Shona]

From the London Gazette:

26 Aug 1918
His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the undermentioned rewards for distinguished service in connection with the military operations in Mesopotamia. Dated 3 June 1918, unless otherwise stated: -

His medal card shows that he first served on the hospital ship Gorrkha on 25 November 1914.

JH Paterson' memoirs mentions the hospital ship.

'The following day the medical board decided to
send me to England, and I was put on board
the hospital ship Gurkha, which I found very
comfortable, with excellent food and a most
excellent medical staff, a colonel, three majors,
and a captain, all of the Indian Medical Ser-
vice ; and I thought what a pity it was that
some of these able and experienced officers
could not be utilized to take charge of such
hospitals as Ras-el-Tin, where they could guide
the junior staff into the way they should go.
It is just another example of not utilizing in
the right way the wealth of talent which we
possess in skilled and able men. I do not
for a moment mean to suggest that the talents
of these Indian Medical Service officers were
wasted on the Gurkha. What I do mean is
that one or two of the senior men would have
been ample on the ship, with a couple of younger
men as assistants, and the other senior men
could then have been released for similar work
among some of the ill-staffed hospitals in Egypt
or Mesopotamia.

'Colonel Haig, I. M.S., the senior medical
officer on board, was untiring in his care of the
sick and wounded, and if a testimonial of his
zeal were wanted, it could be found in the
difference in the appearance which his three
hundred patients presented from the day when
they came on board the Gurkha at Alexandria
to the day when they left his hands at South-
ampton. I, who saw it, can only say it was
simply marvellous.

'After eleven days' treatment in the capable
hands of Major Houston, I. M.S., I found myself
a different man when I walked off the ship at
Southampton, where we arrived on Boxing
Day, 1915.'

[Merry]

Holiday brain sounds like a very good thing to me!!

The citations I have for my relatives are all from Supplements to the London Gazette and detail what happened in the field.

[ElizabethHerts]

Shona, thanks for that. I did find somewhere that the ship was hit off Malta, but can't find it now as my Pilates class calls.

[Shona]

Would he have served on the same vessel for all of the war?

[ElizabethHerts]

I think he was in India, Shona, so perhaps not on a vessel the whole time.

[tenterfieldjulie]

The Government Gazette says awarded for military operations in Mesopotamia .. Isn't that what we call the Persian Gulf? Julie

[Shona]

Geographically, Mesopotamia is a name to the land drained by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers - largely Iraq with parts of Turkey, Iran and Syria

The Mesopotamia Campaign in World War 1 was fought mainly in Iraq - against the Ottoman Turks.

Gallipoli is probably the most well-known event on the Mesopotamia Campaign.

The Persian Gulf lies between the Saudi peninsula and Iran.

[tenterfieldjulie]

Yes it would be interesting to see where he would be stationed as a Naval Officer after the landing at Gallipoli. It appears though that he won his award for his service to patients on the hospital ship, or is my tiredness and the hour confusing me? Julie

[ElizabethHerts]

Julie, Kenneth was in the army - Royal Army Medical Corps. It was my grandfather, Cecil, who was a career naval officer. He joined the RN in 1902, I think. He was 16 and took an entrance exam from Portsmouth Grammar School.

[Shona]

He was in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was on a hospital ship at the beginning of he war. Whether he remained on the ship or moved to land-based hospitals isn't clear...or even if he was involved in the actions at Gallipoli. There are references to the India Office issuing his 1914 star, so that may imply that he did spend some time inland in Iraq with the Indian forces who formed a large part of the Allied land troops in the Mesopotamia campaign.

[annswabey]

There's a short article on him in this but not all of it can be viewed online- you'd have to get hold of the book! Wonder if it might mention the MC?

Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1826-1925

Or, it may have been mentioned in his local paper

[ElizabethHerts]

There's a short article on him in this but not all of it can be viewed online- you'd have to get hold of the book! Wonder if it might mention the MC?

Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1826-1925

Or, it may have been mentioned in his local paper

Ann, I came across the same thing about 30 minutes ago!
Many thanks. I wonder if it'll be in one of the larger libraries.

[annswabey]

I thought they might have it in the library at Kew, but apparently not.

They might have it at the Wellcome Library. They do interlibrary loans.

http://wellcomelibrary.org/using-the-library/services-and-facilities/interlibrary-loans/

[ElizabethHerts]

Ann, thanks for that. I'll look into it.

[Shona]

The Royal College of Physicians have an archive - might be worth contacting them.