British War Medal 1914-20 : Private J A Waugh, 22 Battalion, AIF

British War Medal 1914-20. Impressed around edge with recipient's details. Original issue medal, replacements were issued to Waugh in 1932, which were donated to the AWM in 2014.

Awarded to 489 Private John Anderson Waugh, who was a 38 year old station overseer from Victoria when he enlisted in the AIF on 27 January 1915. After training at Broadmeadows he was assigned to B Company, 22 Battalion and embarked for overseas service from Melbourne aboard HMAT A38 Ulysses. Owing to a mix-up with his original attestation papers Waugh had to re-enlist for service when he reached Alexandria in Egypt. After further training in Egypt he landed on Gallipoli with his battalion at the beginning of September 1915, serving there until the evacuation of the peninsular in December. The battalion arrived in France at the end of March 1916, and saw its first action on the Western Front at Fleurbaix, when it operated in the reserve lines. Its first major action was at Pozieres in July. Waugh collapsed during the battle and was evacuated to England, diagnosed with valvular heart disease. Although his condition stablised, it was attributed to exposure and stress while on active service. Waugh was not considered fit for further service at returned to Australia on 31 August 1916 aboard the New Zealand hospital ship Marama and was discharged from the army at the end of November. In 1932 Waugh, then working as a station manager at Conargo in the New South Wales Riverina, wrote to the army requesting re-issue of his three campaign medals, as his elderly mother, Jessie Waugh, with whom he had left them, had lost them in the years before her death in 1929. Replacement medals were issued to him, but the medal here is one of the originals. Waugh died in 1937 while visiting Victoria.

His three replacement medals are held at REL48283.001-.003.