Hello Sian, Possibly the 8/squiggle thing could be '...........Officer Commanding.....etc' with the final letters abbreviated to fit the column? In the 1800s the world of Military and Naval Music was a strange place. It had a history of what could be described as cross pollination. Directors of Music and Bandmasters were often employed by a Regiment or Army Group as direct entries to service based on their musical qualifications and abilities. These men were frequently head hunted by other Units. Famously, in recent history, is the late Col F Vivian-Dunn who was recruited to the Royal Marines Band Service, on a kind of loan, from the BBC Symphony Orchestra as a Lieutenant Director of Music. One of his predecessors, F J Ricketts (aka Kenneth J Alford) arrived at the Royal Marines by way of the Royal Irish Regiment and the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The point is these influential music leaders took some of their star players with them when they moved - proving us Musoes were doing it before soccer clubs! So, your man may well have gone from RN/RM Band to the RRF as part of a transfer deal and it took a while for his medal to catch up - not unusual in modern times! Regards, Patrick. -----Original Message----- From: Peter Beeston Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 10:52 PM To: MARINERS@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MAR] Help with understanding Naval Medal and Award Rolls entryfor William OLIVER Perhaps his address in 1894 was Royal Sailors' Home, Portsmouth. Peter Beeston -----Original Message----- From: Sian Mackey Sent: Tuesday, 30 August 2011 7:41 AM To: MARINERS@rootsweb.com Subject: [MAR] Help with understanding Naval Medal and Award Rolls entry for William OLIVER Hello All, Can anybody help me to understand notes on a Naval Medal and Award Rolls entry, please? Ancestry has the details for William Oliver who was a bandsman on HMS Inconstant and was awarded the Egyptian medal in 1882. So far so good. However, the entry has some notes added to it. one appears to say "Royal Sails Home Ptsmth 31.10.94" (in the name column). The other note is in the "where sent" column and says,"Sent to Officer Command8 Royal Fusiliers Finsbury 24.3.83". (The 8 is an approximation of a squiggle which I assume is an abbreviation.) Does anybody have any idea why a medal award entry for 1882 would have been annotated in 1894? Is this usual? The 31st Oct. 1894 is the date that William Oliver rejoined the navy on HMS St George, but I can't understand why that would need to go on this record. And what is the "Royal"? Another ship? Similarly, why might a medal have been sent to the Royal Fusiliers? Does this mean that William Oliver was by that time in the army? Any suggestions very gratefully received! Regards, Sian. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message