Edward VII Volunteer Long Service medal

[lawrence_n]

This is totally out of my wheelhouse. I would think some of our British members would be the most knowledgeable about this. I recently acquired a small lot of militaria. Amongst the medals was the long service medal, named as was common, and my cursory search hasn't yielded any solid information. The inscription reads "1055 Pte. H.A. Winn, 2/V.B.RL., W.Kent Regt." I'm reading this as issued to a private in the 2nd. Volunteer Bn. (RL.?), West Kent Regt. So my question is twofold. How do I get information on the soldier and what would this be worth? Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

Information

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[Sunray]

"...information on the soldier..." That probably doesn't exist. Very few such personnel records were kept. And the units have been disbanded for 100 years or so.
The Volunteer Long Service medal was kind of like our current CD. Yours is an Enlisted Man's version, last awarded in 1907 for 20 years of service for men in the Volunteer Force(Basically like our Militia). There was one for Officers and Colonials(that'd be us)
Edward VII's was issued starting in 1901.
Value will depend on where you are and what you can get for it. There's one on a Brit Medals Collector's site they say is worth 85 Pounds. $146.85Cdn.
Haven't lived in TO for eons(more than 30 years), but there is or used to be several Militaria shops down town. Then there are gun/militaria shows like this one. Toronto Military Show

[Roy W]

Best way to see if there is any info out there is to post it on British Medals Forum Index page

Pricewise, anything from £70 GBP to £100GBP

The medal forum might turn up some info for WW1 service, which is possible. or there are some Militia records on Ancestry.co.uk which they will be able to access.

[lawrence_n]

To all you gentleman, a big "Thank you"! I hadn't realized that sourcing information about an individual soldier would be so problematic, given the British penchant for keeping records. Nothing on Pte. Winn has showed up in any of my search attempts or even looking into the history of Royal West Kent Regt. I'll probably take it to the next Toronto military show.

[Sunray]

Hi. Most of that kind of info was unit level personnel records that just were not kept. Especially for an enlisted man from 100 years plus ago. It's like asking who got what rifle(a question that gets asked a lot on the assorted forums.). The info just wasn't kept.

[Flying10uk]

How do I get information on the soldier

If any of his service records still exist you should be able to access them via the Ancestry website but you would likely have to pay a fee. If his service records still exist in theory they should be at the Public Records Office at Kew London and you should be able to see them online through the Ancestry website. I would suggest, therefore, looking at the Ancestry website.

[lawrence_n]

Thank you. I found the site in my research and debated how far I wished to go in my research. Considering that I plan to sell it at the next local militaria show, I'll leave that up to the next owner to decide if he/she wishes to pursue it further.

[browningautorifle]

the next owner

You can always pass on that info, we need all the exploration sites we can find.

[Flying10uk]

For me if I go and use the public computer in my local library I can access the Ancestry website for free. However I do not believe this to be nationwide across the UK (?) and is obviously going to be different from country to country.

When I researched a distant relative who died in WW1 but joined the T.A. well before WW1 the earliest paperwork in his WW1 service record dated to 1911, when he joined the T.A.. The sad and poignant piece of information on this 1911 dated paperwork for me was the question about the applicant's employment. My relative had written that he was still in education. He had joined the T.A., in 1911, as soon as he was legally allowed to and was still at school/college. He died aged 20.

The good thing about the Ancestry site is that it has access to multiple archives in more than one country.

[lawrence_n]

For me if I go and use the public computer in my local library I can access the Ancestry website for free. However I do not believe this to be nationwide across the UK (?) and is obviously going to be different from country to country.

When I researched a distant relative who died in WW1 but joined the T.A. well before WW1 the earliest paperwork in his WW1 service record dated to 1911, when he joined the T.A.. The sad and poignant piece of information on this 1911 dated paperwork for me was the question about the applicant's employment. My relative had written that he was still in education. He had joined the T.A., in 1911, as soon as he was legally allowed to and was still at school/college. He died aged 20.

The good thing about the Ancestry site is that it has access to multiple archives in more than one country.

So many stories, both sad and uplifting, come from those archives. We have my father's service record and that of an uncle who died during WWII (death by "misadventure") in England. I would have liked to have put the medal on my table with a little more information. I would imagine it's not too common, being as Edward VII had such a short reign, and the medal was discontinued in 1908 when it was superseded by a new long service medal.