TOPIC:

Dave - this time you did not press the "insert" button to put it into the text.

Here it is again, bit expanded as it shows his WW1 Service and some other medals he accumulated:



Have found his gazetting of the "Cross of the Order of St. George 3rd Class" but not his DCM.

David.

Hi Smethwick

I just thought you might to see his medal entitlement for WW1, Just need to find his Anglo Boer War Medal entitlement, thank for trying perhaps somebody might have made a not of them somewhere. Kindest Regards Dave

Just thought I would post the Gazetting of his WW1 DCM:



According to the Halifax Evening Courier of 21 September 1916 he encountered even worse then Hill 60. You can work out from the last sentence he was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with 4 clasps & the King's South Africa Medal with both date clasps. The report of his 1923 Military Funeral (delivered to the cemetery on a gun carriage) also says he served in the South African War and was aged only 42 at time of his death.



Interestingly the 31st March Census Return for 4 Allerton Yard, Halifax finds him at home and gives his occupation as "Soldier (Prince of Wales Own Yorkshire Regiment)" The West Yorkshire Regiment went out to SA in October 1899 and were still there at the end of the conflict. To do the necessary 18 months and some service in 1902 to qualify for the KSA he must have had broken service and presumably been invalided home, recovered and gone back out again.

Mind you he does seem to have had another side to his character owing to the demon drink. His WW1 service records despite his "Character Very Good" show he was court martialled in 1916 for drunkenness. Between the two wars he gets mentioned numerous times in the Halifax Evening Courier when he was in court on drink related charges. He was also done for contempt of court when he went to sleep whilst in the dock answering one of these charges and on being woken up it was realised he was drunk. In late 1906 he was arrested for causing a commotion and using obscene language, he then resisted arrest and put one of the officers in hospital delaying the trial until February 1907 when he was fined 20 shillings for using obscene language and sent to prison for a month for the assault. After WW1 He seems to have become a reformed character based on his lack of mentions in the Halifax Evening Courier with the exception of his funeral.

Our messages seem to have crossed in the post.

Hi Smethwick, if Behan did have the Kinga and Queen South Africa Medals bars are most likely to be on the Queens South Africa Medals, and has a friend Pointed out tome the King South Africa would have 1901 - 1902claspd so that would be four, any ideas Kindest Regards DaveC

Dave - I read it that the six bars (clasps) were split between the two medals. The KSA would have had to carry at least one clasp - SA1902 and nearly all those issued also carried the SA1901 clasp and even Bernard, with his split service, must have been in SA for some of 1901 to get the required 18 months in. Single clasp KSA's are extremely rare I believe. So that would mean his QSA would have carried 4 clasps - a not untypical number of clasps for the QSA.

I have been through the KSA Medal rolls for the West Riding Regiment page by page and can find no B Behan listed or anything close. For whatever reason he could have used a false name - if they did it was often in their mother's maiden name. In Bernard's case this was Moore but nobody called Moore appears on the West Riding Regiment Medal Rolls.

It is possible that he was in the West Riding Regiment at the time of the South African War but did not serve in SA and when in his cups used to tell false tales of daring African exploits and adventures to his drinking mates and when you have started a lie it tends to grow into the "truth". At least after the Great War he had no need to make up any new stories. An enigma of a man and it would be fascinating to know the truth regarding the ABW.

You have never admitted what your interest in him is - a relative?

Regards, David.

My interest is Purley research, I came across Pte Bernard Behan about 20 - 25 years ago, he was put up for a Victory Cross, but it was a down graded to a DCM, then his exploits appeared in a book I have called Deeds that thrilled an empire, and then when I started to research him more the local newspapers are full of him being one of the highest decorated soldiers in West Yorkshire, at the time, so I delved in to him more, when he died in 1923 he had a big Military Funeral, and was. Buried in Stoney Royd Cemetery in an unmarked family grave, then has I gavered more information on him and realised he had served in the Anglo Boer war I started looking in to that but couldn't find any official documentation on him so it has been left on and off for 20 years, until a friend asked if I had any information on him, I spent all last night going through every bit of documentation dvds memory sticks hard copies and I finally found a newspaper article that gives his medal intitelment see attached I've also added a photograph of Behan.