British War Medal 1914-20 : Warrant Officer Class II F G Jurd, 2 Battalion, AIF

Place Europe: Western Front
Accession Number REL30220.004
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Medal
Physical description Silver
Maker Unknown
Place made United Kingdom
Date made c 1920
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

British War Medal 1914-20. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

History / Summary

Frederick George Jurd was born in London in 1870, and enlisted in the Royal Marines at the age of 19. He emigrated to Australia some time after 1910. On 15 August 1914, aged 43, Jurd enlisted in the naval contingent of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force as an Able Seaman serving with it until January 1915. In May 1915, he enlisted as a private in 2 Infantry Battalion AIF. He joined the Battalion on Gallipoli and served with it until the evacuation. In 1916, he was posted to 5 Pioneer Battalion, and served with it for the remainder of the war, rising to the rank of warrant officer. Jurd was decorated three times in 1918, receiving the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. He returned to Australia in February 1919, and was discharged medically unfit due to a gun shot wound to his right leg, suffered at Bellicourt. Frederick Jurd died in Sydney in 1939.