PRIVATE J. HENDERSON, 2ND BATTALION SCOTS GUARDS. Military Medal, George V (8505 Private, 2nd Battalion Scots Guards). Few minor rim nicks and contact marks, otherwise attractively toned, Good Very Fine.
With photocopied Medal Index Card and London Gazette extract. Private John Henderson first saw active service in France, entering that theater of operations on 7/10/1914 (the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards landed as a unit at Zeebrugge on 7/10/1914). Hendersons Military Medal was announced in the London Gazette of 21/8/1917, page 8644. Henderson also entitled 1914 Star and bar trio. Hendersons Medal Index Card indicates that he was still serving in the post-war years, the Adjutant of the Scots Guards forwarding a request for him to be issued with a bar to his 1914 Star and rosette for wear on ribbon bar on 26/7/1920.
Howard Williamson, in his Great War Medal Collectors Companion, notes awards announced in the 21/8/1917 edition of the London Gazette being mostly for June 1917 and including awards for Messines, 7 June 1917. The 2nd Battalion Scots Guards did not take part in the opening operations at Messines, 7/6/1917, being held in reserve. Nor did they take part in any other major operations during June 1917, being out of the front line for the whole of that month. Henderson's award was therefore presumably for an act of gallantry prior to June 1917.