MBE, Officer of the Legion of Honour, US Bronze Star

[jeffskea]

Hello, this is my first topic with OMSA, I have posted this subject on other forums and just looking for other insight and input. I have a group consisting of the MBE, Defence Medal, 1939-45 War Medal, Officer of the Legion of Honour, and the U.S. Bronze Star. It is a very intriguing group which I believe points to a staff officer, possibly volunteer/temporary Lt.Cmdr/WCmdr/Lt. Col rank, attached to some joint HQ in the UK. I am in the process of narrowing down a possible recipient with a complete list of British Bronze Star recipients from the National Archives. I believe this to be a unique group and although it is a bit of a long shot, I am convinced I will be able to narrow it down to a few possible names. Anyhow I look forward to any comments and further input. Thank you.

Jeff

[JB Floyd]

With 989 Bronze Stars to the Army, 27 to the Royal Navy and 175 to the Royal Air Force, it's a daunting task to undertake, but a very large percentage of potential candidates can be excluded immediately by their having other awards, or on the basis of their rank.

[FDutil]

An absolutely superb set!

[jeffskea]

Thank you, I had never seen any combination like this before so I had to have it

I've ordered your works on Bronze Stars to the British, Jeff so look forward to going through those, especially for the Navy and Air Force as I have yet to come across any definitive list of them yet. Thanks for all the work you did in making these references possible.

I believe I can narrow it down considerably as you mentioned, the MBE cuts it down greatly already, also the 4th Class Legion of Honor will be the ultimate key. So far I've only come across WO 373 from the National Archives which lists many French awards to the British, but only to the Army from what I can find. All 4th Class recipients from that list were at least Colonel and above, with the majority being Brigadiers/Maj Gens for the Officer Degree and none I could find had only an MBE - it would seem more common probably for those ranks to have an OBE and possibly a Legion of Merit, Officer degree.

The closest I've come so far was to a RNVR Lt Cmdr who was a Flotilla Officer at HMS Orlando in Scotland for the duration of the War. He held the MBE and LdeH, only the Chevalier though. Unfortunately I couldn't trace a Bronze Star to him but that kind of position would fit very well. Or possibly a technical intelligence officer, RAFVR W/Cmdr, there are a few MBE-BS combos I found in the London Gazette.

Anyhow, knowing that this recipient has to be one of those 1191 Bronze Stars is very exciting.

Jeff

[JB Floyd]

My work was simply a compilation of awards from the London Gazette, so there will be a few awards made that never were Gazetted, but the chances are fairly high that he's in there somewhere.

[Drain]

Interesting that he was not awarded the 1939-1945 Star, I don't have the award regs in front of me, but then again his type of appointment may exclude him, like members of the Home Guard were. The Bronze star would make sense if it was awarded for Meritious Serve and not Valor. Back in those day the Bronze Star, would be awarded for service in Joint HQs like the Army/Navy Commendation Medal is today, when the Legion of Merit (Officer) was not warranted.