WW1 medal trio – 1914-15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal – awarded to Private GEORGE CLYNE – Royal Army Medical Corps – Hospital Ship VALDIVIA – GALLIPOLI Campaign

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0071

WW1 medal trio – 1914-15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal – awarded to Private GEORGE CLYNE – Royal Army Medical Corps – Hospital Ship VALDIVIA – GALLIPOLI Campaign

You are looking at a trio of medals awarded to Private GEORGE CLYNE of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who first served aboard a hospital ship providing medical care and facilities to wounded soldiers coming out of France and Belgium, followed by service in the Gallipoli Campaign and in Salonica, then moving on to medical duties in France.

The medals are inscribed ‘42024. PTE. G.CLYNE. R.A.M.C.’

GEORGE ALEXANDER CLYNE, the son of JAMES and MARY CLYNE, was born at Craigellachie in Banffshire on the 15^th of October 1893, and he was a grocer by profession and a resident of Forres for 1 ½ years at the time of enlisting into the army.

GEORGE appears within the ‘Morayshire Roll of Honour’, and from this record we know he enlisted in the R.A.M.C. at Fort George near Inverness on the 15^th of October 1914, and he served in “France and the East”.........and according to his 1914-15 Star medal record, he first entered a theatre of war area on the 9^th of January 1915, and he has the letters ‘HS’ recorded against this date, which means he was serving aboard a ‘Hospital Ship’ at the time, however, as to which ship, this is not immediately clear within the available historical records.

In an attempt to establish exactly what GEORGE’S army service was, his 1914-15 Star medal has been considered in detail, and there are 4 x other R.A.M.C. soldiers listed alongside him, all with surnames beginning with the letter C, and all listed with the reference ‘9.1.15/HS’, which may suggest the men were all serving together.

There are multiple entries for R.A.M.C. personnel serving on hospital ships, but far less than those soldiers who served on land, in military hospitals and casualty clearing stations for example, and from a clearly unscientific and very quick totting up of the servicemen with a surname starting with the letter ‘C’, there are nearly 600 x soldiers without HS recorded in their medal records, but just under 30 with HS recorded, just under 5% based on this quick calculation, but giving you an indication as to numbers of R.A.M.C. soldiers those who served aboard ship and those who had duties on land.

Many of those who did serve on ships have varying dates of arrival in a theatre of war, however, a number of soldiers with service numbers either side of GEORGE have been been considered in detail, and within the service number range 41993 to 42042 (50 x numbers), of the 46 x where a soldier’s name has been identified, the medal index cards for 18 x of those men show them all having entered the ‘France’ theatre of war on the 19^th of January 1915, but more importantly, 7 x men, and this includes 42024 GEORGE CLYNE, are all recorded as having been assigned to a hospital ship and first entering a theatre of war on the 9^th of January 1915.........Also of potential interest is that 3 x of the soldiers identified were from the Forres area and it appears that many others were from Scotland.

Of particular importance, however, when looking at identifying the hospital ship on which GEORGE CLYNE served, the medal index card for 42020 ROBERT D McLEAN, one of the seven hospital ship men and only four service numbers away from GEORGE, records him having served aboard HMHS VALDAVIA (Hospital Ship – real name VALDIVIA), from the 9^th of January 1915 to the 31^st of August 1917, and there is a newspaper report in the Fifeshire Advertiser dated the 22^nd of May 1915 that describes GEORGE MAVOR (service number 42013) serving as an orderly on the Hospital Ship VALDIVIA, so two of the seven hospital ship men identified as having entered a theatre of war on the 9^th of January 1915, were also known to have served aboard the Hospital Ship VALDIVIA, and this is a clear indication that all seven men probably served aboard the same vessel.

HM Hospital Ship VALDIVIA was a French owned passenger liner that had been loaned to the Admiralty at the start of the war, was fitted out for its medical role at the end of 1914, and commenced its seaborn duties at the start of 1915, probably on the 9^th of January itself, because there are other R.A.M.C. soldiers, from other areas of the country it appears, who also entered a theatre of war aboard a hospital ship that same day.

In 1915, the VALDIVIA initially served in Europe, with newspaper reports from March describing how she, with a party of R.A.M.C. aboard, had transported nearly 400 x wounded soldiers from Marseilles to Ireland, and the vessel was still operating in the France and Belgium area in May, after which they transported the 34^th Welsh General Hospital to India. By early August 1915, the vessel was in the Dardanelles, very heavily involved in the Gallipoli Campaign and the evacuation of wounded soldiers to medical stations in other areas such as Malta and Alexandria in Egypt, and in November, transporting 500 x wounded soldiers to England. Newspaper reports also show the vessel operating in the Salonica (Macedonia Front) area in July 1916. 

There is a report, in the ‘Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express’ dated the 20^th of October 1917, that describes GEORGE CLYNE being home on leave, that he was serving on board a hospital ship, and he had served in Egypt and Salonica.

It is not known how long GEORGE CLYNE served aboard the Hospital Ship VALDIVIA, accepting that this was his ship of course, but there were others who had ‘9.1.15/HS’ recorded on their medal index cards, who were also believed to have been serving aboard this vessel, and they were transferred at some stage later in the War, and died, namely:

1.        42829 G DAVIDSON - Died 20.4.18 – Commemorated at the Arras Memorial

2.        42508  A DRYBURGH - Died 3.10.17 – Born 1893 at Scoon in Fife. Died 13/10/1917 whilst serving with the 300^th Field Ambulance, 52^nd casualty Clearing Station, in German East Africa.

3.        8810 J GOLDSWORTHY - Drowned 26.2.18 whilst serving aboard the Hospital Ship GLENART CASTLE, sunk by a Geman U-Boat.

4.        42846 J FERGUSON - Drowned 26.2.18 whilst serving aboard the Hospital Ship GLENART CASTLE, sunk by a Geman U-Boat.

5.        42013 G MAVOR - Drowned 26.2.18 whilst serving aboard the Hospital Ship GLENART CASTLE, sunk by a Geman U-Boat.

As you can see, there are at least three soldiers who served on the Hospital Ship GLENART CASTLE, who died on the 26^th of February 1918 after their ship was sunk by a German U-Boat, and GEORGE MAVOR is particularly important because we know he  served on the VALDIVIA.

GEORGE CLYNE was serving aboard the hospital ship until at least the latter half of 1917, based on the newspaper article mentioned above dated October 1917, but he was not one of the R.A.M.C. soldier who died or survived the sinking of the GLENART CASTLE, and a report in the ‘Dufftown News and Speyside Advertiser’ dated October 1918 refers to him suffering from pneumonia and being in hospital in France, which would suggest he was serving on the Western Front.

Having first joined in October 1914, GEORGE served with the R.A.M.C. until the end of the war.....He left the army on the 18^th of February 1919.

SELLER NOTE = Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during this research will be provided.

SELLER NOTE = There is some marking on ALL medal ribbons, from having been stuck onto card prior to coming into my possession.