PRIVATE W.C. EVANS, KING’S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS (LATER ORDINARY SEAMAN ROYAL NAVY AND ABLE SE

PRIVATE W.C. EVANS, KING’S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS (LATER ORDINARY SEAMAN ROYAL NAVY AND ABLE SEAMAN ROYAL FLEET RESERVE). Eight: British War and Victory Medals (R-28795 Private, King’s Royal Rifle Corps) 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, 1939-45 Defence and War Medals Royal Fleet Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, George V, coinage bust (officially impressed: J. 113568 (CH, B, 22398) W.C. EVANS. A.B. R.F.R.) Imperial Service Medal, Elizabeth II, Dei Gratia obverse legend (officially impressed: WILLIAM CORNELIUS EVANS). Medals loose (Imperial Service Medal in original case of issue), British War and Victory Medals polished, with surface contact marks and rims bruised where the two medals have repeatedly come into contact with each other (not affecting naming details), other medals Almost Extremely Fine and better.

With photocopied Medal Index Card and London Gazette extract.

The Medal Index Card for Evans has a number of mistakes. His service number is incorrect, being given as 12795 instead of 28795, as impressed on his WW1 medals. In addition, Medal Index Card gives a C prefix to Evanss and gives his second initial incorrectly as R. There is no record of a C prefix being used on medals awarded to men of British infantry regiments. The C prefix on Evans’s MIC is clearly a mistake. Whoever compiled the Medal Index Card transposed Evans’s second initial, “C”, with his service number prefix letter, “R”. M.I.C. confirms entitled British War and Victory Medals only for WW1.

William Cornelius Evans’s Imperial Service Medal was announced in the London Gazette of 16/8/1963, “Evans, William Cornelius, postman, Bournemouth and Poole”.

Group accompanied by a photograph of the recipient in postman’s uniform.

The R prefix to Evan’s WW1 medals is seen on medals to later recruits to the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, up to and including the 16th Battalion.