WW2 Medal card application form with details redacted

Hi Everyone

I am pretty new to posting on here so I apologise if this post is in the wrong place. I have a medal application form which was dated 6/03/1952 but the address and applicants details have been redacted and no signature on the application. I believe it was a family member but who knows?? .The date the medals were issued was the 4th December 1953.
Can anyone give me a clue as to why some information is redacted.

Many thanks
KK

 

Hi,

9 months seems quite a long time between application and issue of the medals. Most I’ve seen had a less than 3 week turnaround so it’s suggestive there were “issues” and it was perhaps a less than straightforward application. I couldn’t say why the application process was longer than the norm of the time.

Members may be able to draw inferences and offer an opinion if they had sight of the application form.

Steve

 

Hi
Thanks for your quick response. I will load up the image.

 

Hi,

The 39/45 Star & War Medal only entitlement suggests he was an early war (BEF or Norway Campaigns) casualty or POW.

NOK application suggests he had died during or after the war so perhaps War Office/Medal Office wanted all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed to be satisfied the applicant was the entitled NOK.

If that was the case correspondence would follow and either the applicant was slow to provide the additional information or the civil servants handling the application were tardy in processing it - rather like current day National Archives staff handling service record applications.

On the other hand it may have been a case of difficulty in establishing his medal entitlement as that needed examination of his service file that might have been difficult to locate and or interpret.

Steve

 

As mentioned by Steve, the medals were applied for by a next of kin in 1953, the reason that information is redacted is one of confidentiality - the applicant may still be alive.

William Alexander Ray is mentioned in the London Gazette, including one of 1953
Notices | All Notices | The Gazette

 

Thanks for your replies. William was alive and working out in Ceylon at the time of the medals application The NOK may have been his ex-wife. I have since read up about the redaction and confidentialty issues. Sorry to have wasted your time on this. Thank you Tony for the later London Gazette Notice and for your help Steve. I hope we may find out more about his army service when the family get his service record.

Many thanks