Hi Phil, >> The Quarterly Journal is not the place for tha, too infrequentt. << I have to challenge that. The Journal is the ONLY place where all the membership has access. This little tiddler of a list is of little value to most of the membership because they do not subscribe. Regards Gerry Langley

Some of you may already have picked this up from other mailing lists, but The Western Front Association has posted the following announcement on its web site. >>> WFA granted custodianship of the mens Medal Index Cards Thursday, 12th May 2005, from Bruce Simpson The Western Front Association is pleased to announce that following negotiations with the Lord Chancellor's Department, the National Archives, and the Ministry of Defence, we have been granted custodianship of the Great War Medal Index Cards.* The Cards are now in the possession of the W.FA. and have been moved to a secure storage facility. Due the current condition of the cards and the filing cabinets, our next step is to provide new storage cabinets, and under the direction of archivists manage the cleaning of the archive. To secure the long term future for the cards we will need to raise funds for the administration and long term care of them. Once the funds have been raised we will endeavour to digitally copy the reverse side of the cards that hold correspondence details-approximately 5% of the cards. We will also be seeking a permanent home for this valuable archive. This is an exciting project for the W.F.A. in our 25th Anniversary year; we would ask people to bear with us as we work to secure the future of these historical and important documents. Bruce Simpson Chairman, the Western Front Association *The women's cards have been given to the Imperial War Museum. <<< This is why I said in my message of 25th April that the exact numbers of cards with information on the back ' is all fairly academic ' since the cards are to be preserved anyway. Regards, Geoff Geoffrey T. Stone, SoG Mailing List Administrator. lists@sog.org.uk http://www.sog.org.uk On-line retail shopping? Use http://www.buy.at/genealogists our affiliate shop and SoG gains funds at no cost to you.

Heartiest congratulations to all concerned. It is a great relief to know that these valuable cards are in good hands Anthony >

Presumably it will also remain academic until we actually have the opportunity to see the backs of the cards. > -----Original Message----- > From: Geoffrey [mailto:lists@sog.org.uk] > Sent: 14 May 2005 12:49 > To: SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [SoG] World War 1 Medal Cards - <bit snipped> > This is why I said in my message of 25th April that the exact numbers of > cards with information on the back ' is all fairly academic ' since the > cards are to be preserved anyway.