Evidence for the ‘Echelon Rolls’ mentioned in the Index to 1914-1918 War Medal Rolls in 1964 and on a Medal Index Card (the example also includes a reference to an Army Medal Office Division), but which do not appear to have survived
FOLLOWED BY TABLES LISTING THE ECHELON ROLLS AND OTHER WW1 RECORDS KEPT AT THE A.M.O. IN 1961
1) Evidence for the Echelon Rolls Included in the Index to the 1914-1918 War Medal Rolls
The original title of the index from the front of the volume is ‘Index to 1914-1918 War Medal Rolls..[,]… SW-B Lists..[,] T.F. War and Echelon Rolls’. The book is apparently a re-write of an earlier volume as it says on the inside cover:
The following link to the relevant part of the Index (listing the Echelon Rolls held by the A.M.O. in 1964) is to the pay for view Ancestry.co.uk site:
From the National Archives (TNA) WO 329/1 Index and Key to War of 1914-1918 medal rolls: Echelon Rolls. pp. 184-185
The list given in the Index of ‘Echelon Rolls’ is:
- Roughly in Army Order of Precedence.
- The titles run Unit, P.H. [pigeon hole) and Box, with other than the first two boxes, the Cavalry and Royal Artillery given both pigeonhole and box numbers.
- The numbers run from 1-22 and number 21 pigeonhole has the word ‘Bundle’ written over the top of the number and covers a number of Corps: the R.A.V.C., R.A.O.C., R.A.CH.D., R.A.P.C., T.F.N.S. and Q.M.A.A.C.
That the Rolls concerned officers rank than other ranks is stated in the table below, the Rolls are described as ‘…Echelon Rolls – Officers only…’
2) Evidence for the Echelon Rolls and Division I (Army Medal Office) from the Medal Index Card (M.I.C.) of Major Ewen Campbell Bruce
The Medal Index Card which mentions them is for the disgraced Major Ewen Campbell Bruce, who was stripped of his pension, his D.S.O. and his Miltary Cross following his part in a robbery in what was to become the Irish Republic.
The following link to Campbell’s Medal Index Card is from the pay for view Ancestry.co.uk site (free record set):
‘Trace for DIV. I. dated 2/8/62. Traced in Echelon Rolls. No. 14.’
Looking at the Indexes this shows that the trace was in the Rolls kept in Pigeonhole 14, which housed Rolls for the ‘R. Munster Fus…R. Dublin Fus…RIFLE BRIGADE…A. CYC CORPS…M-G-C…TANK CORPS’.
An explanation of the roll of the different Divisions in the Army Record Office in 1957 can be found here.
From The National Archives (TNA) PRO 58/218 Army Medal Office, Droitwich: attached to letter from Mr Sydney, War Office to R.D. Farmer P.R.O. (4 July 1961)
War Records Revealed 