WW1 MESOPOTAMIA MERITORIOUS SERVICE MEDAL LANCE CPL MATHIESON BRITISH ARMY

Lance Corporal Mathieson was awarded his Meritorious Service Medal in recognition ‘of valuable service rendered with the British Forces in Mesopotamia’.

Army Meritorious Service Medal (G.V.R.) impressed named 49321 P^TE – L.C^PL -W.MATHIESON. 2/(G)BN:NORTH’D FUS: Comes with medal index cards, medal rolls, 1901 census & copy London Gazette 22/9/1919.

Meritorious Service Medal gazetted: London Gazette 22/9/1919. Home city being Lochgelly. 164 M.S.M’s were awarded to the Northumberland Fusiliers, with only 16 for operations in Mesopotamia.

William Mathieson’s enlisted with the 8^th Battalion Royal Highlanders (Black Watch) with a regimental number of 3238. He landed in France on the 10/5/1915 and was posted to the 8^th Bn, possibly as a re-enforcement as the battalion had landed on the 10/3/1915. At some stage he was transferred to the 2^nd Battalion Black Watch prior to the 2^nd being sent to Mesopotamia in December 1915. This is possibly due to the heavy losses the 2^nd Bn took September 1915. Once in Mesopotamia he transferred to the 2^nd Garrison Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers at a date unknown. He survived the war to be demobilised to Class Z.

The Garrison Battalions were generally made up of older soldiers or men who were unfit due to illness or injury’s/wounds. The 2nd Garrison Battalion is generally regarded as being formed in Newcastle in October 1915 and went to India. Was at Ahmednagar in 1917 and 1918.

However as per the Great War Forum: Men of the 2nd Garrison Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers served in Mesopotamia from March 1917 until 1919. Whether this was the whole battalion, or elements of it, is not clear but the Battalion lost 179 men during the First World War and the majority died from sickness in Mesopotamia. The earliest death in Mesopotamia was on March 4th 1917 and the latest March 21st 1919….However, "Soldiers Died in the Great War" (HMSO, 1921) lists their first death in Mesopotamia on March 4th 1917 at Basra. It seems certain that all or part of the 2nd Garrison Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers arrived in Basra in late February or early March 1917. The deaths in Mesopotamia appeared to be from sickness including one from smallpox… The Garrison Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers appears to have remained in Mesopotamia until the winter of 1918/1919 as the last recorded death there was on January 4th 1919 at Amara. Amara was further North than Basra and was the headquarters from where the 13th Division started demobilisation in February 1919. The final death in the 2nd Garrison Battalion was recorded in India on March 21 1919. The 2nd Garrison Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers returned to England and was disbanded on January 8th 1920.