British Army Long Service & Good Conduct Medal - Signalman William Harold Gunn, Royal Corps of Signals
British Army Long Service & Good Conduct Medal - 2312163 SGLN. W. H. GUNN. R. SIGNALS.
Signalman William Harold Gunn (2312163), Royal Corps of Signals, was born in April 1899 at Fulham, London, the son of William Henry Gunn, a painter, and his wife Mary Jane Gunn (née Gale). He spent his early childhood in Hammersmith, appearing in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses at the family home there, the latter listing him as a schoolboy shortly before the death of his mother in 1915.
Gunn joined the Army during the final years of the First World War, entering service in 1917, and was later absorbed into the newly formed Royal Corps of Signals. By 1921 he was serving as a Driver, Army R.C. of Sigs, and was recorded in the census that year stationed at Maresfield Camp, Uckfield, Sussex. He continued to serve throughout the interwar period, remaining a career soldier.
On 2 June 1923, William married Kathleen Hilda Gorringe, an 18-year-old domestic servant, at Maresfield Parish Church. He was then aged 24 and described as being with the Royal Corps of Signals at Maresfield Park Camp. The couple’s first child, Gordon William Gunn, was born later that year in Uckfield, Sussex.
After many years of continuous service, Gunn qualified for the Long Service & Good Conduct Medal (Military), which was awarded to him in 1936 under Army Order 195/36. His medal index confirms his full name as Gunn, W. H., his rank as Signalman, and his service number 2312163.
He remained with the Royal Signals through the Second World War, by which time he had completed 27 years’ service. A War Office medal application form dated 14 February 1949 records him as “DISCHARGED – UNFIT”, giving his home address as 2 White Bungalow, Ludgershall, Hampshire, and confirming his entitlement to the Defence Medal and War Medal for WWII service. His signature, “W. H. Gunn”, appears at the foot of the form.
William Harold Gunn died on 10 May 1961 at Devizes, Wiltshire, aged 62. Probate was granted the following month at Winchester.
A long-serving regular soldier of the Royal Corps of Signals, his career spanned the First World War, the interwar years, and the Second World War, earning him the Long Service & Good Conduct Medal after nearly three decades in uniform.
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