The 1914 Star to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines

The Royal Navy's entitlement to the 1914 Star was almost exclusively restricted to the RN Division though personnel from a few other minor units - including, for example, Sick Berth staff from HMS Pembroke - also qualified. To qualify one had to have served in France/Belgium between 5th August and 22nd November 1914. This splendid work of research lists all those who were entitled to the Star, battalion by battalion, unit by unit. There is an excellent introduction giving the background to the formation of the RN Division and some of the arguments about RN entitlement to the star (the Admiralty was initially against it), and at the end there is a section devoted to the `story' of the Star from the Navy's viewpoint based on selected extracts from the Admiralty case file. Here we can read correspondence between the King, Admiralty and the War Office, Fleet and Army Orders and Press releases. A fascinating document which shows there is more to it than meets the eye in the creation of a campaign medal.