WW1 Victory Medal (Single medal only) – Awarded to Sapper WILLIAM ALEXANDER of the Royal Engineers – ‘RAILWAYS’

Stock Reference – MM-MED-0052

WW1 Victory Medal (Single medal only) – Awarded to Sapper WILLIAM  ALEXANDER of the Royal Engineers – ‘RAILWAYS’

You are looking at a single WW1 Victory Medal awarded to Sapper 230033 WILLIAM ALEXANDER of the Royal Engineers, who later served in their ‘RAILWAYS’ organisation (service number WR/263953).

The medal is inscribed ‘230033 SPR. W.ALEXANDER. R.E.’

The specific Royal Engineers railways unit in which WILLIAM served cannot be established within the available service records, but there is a very definite correlation between the original service number he and many others who appear in the British War Medal and Victory Medal roll either side of him were assigned originally, and the new ‘WR’ numbers that they received at a later date, to such an extent that is seems highly likely they all entered the Royal Engineers at or around the same time, probably around mid to late 1917, as part of a related administrative process, and were probably all members of the ‘RAILWAYS’ at that time, or were destined to be, with their associated ‘WR’ service numbers allocated in 1918 as part of the renumbering of the Royal Engineers’ Waterways & Railways organisation.  

Of all the RE soldier names who have been researched, only a handful have been found to be of interest when considering which sub-unit WILLIAM belonged to. There is an absent voters list (1919) record for Sapper WILLIAM FAIRLEE (WR/263942) who is recorded as being with the 25^th Light Railway Company Royal Engineers, a Silver War Badge record for BRUCE RAVEN (WR/263972) who was in the Royal Engineers Railway Transport Department, and ALFRED TERRETT (WR/263980) worked for the Midland Railway Company as a clerk before joining the army and was a railway clerk it appears whilst serving with the Royal Engineers in France. This may or may not support the suggestion that these men all arrived in the Royal Engineers Railways Department at a similar time and were all employed in a railway role during the latter stages of WW1,

SELLER NOTE = This medal was from a collection, 7 x medals in total, all awarded to soldiers with the surname ALEXANDER, and they were purchased in the believe that at least some would have been related to each other. From the research conducted, this has been found NOT to be the case, however, those seeking medals in the ALEXANDER surname should consider the others just in case they are connected in some way.

SELLER NOTE = Only very limited research has been conducted into this medal and its recipient.....Supporting documentation obtained and / or created during this research will be provided.