The details of thousands of civilians who were recommended for and awarded medals for bravery in the Second World War including George Cross recipients, are now available to search for free online.
The names are taken from the records of the Treasury Committee which decided on the recipients of honours including the George Cross, the George Medal, the OBE and the MBE. The records are now held in series T 336 at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew.
Adding the complete collection of about 6,500 individuals from 166 files to TNA’s online catalogue Discovery took a team of staff and volunteers two years.
Searching for each name brings up a short description of why the person was commended, what their action was, and what medal they received, if any.
For example, Discovery informs us that George Archibald Howe, a manager at Saltend Oil Depot, was awarded the George Medal “For conspicuous bravery following an air attack on Saltend Oil Depot [Yorkshire] on 1 July 1940”.
Another record, for Agnes Hilda May Bird, says that she was recommended for an award for “Detain[ing] an armed enemy airman whose plane had crashed” in 1940, but did not receive one.
Awards for agents in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret organisation that carried out espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe during the Second World War, are also included in the newly digitised collection. For example, there are citations for Odette Sansom (1912–1995). Sansom was a Frenchwoman married to a British man and served with the SOE undercover in occupied France.
Sansom was captured by the Germans in 1943 and was tortured by the Gestapo, but refused to betray her fellow agents.
She was held in Ravensbrück concentration camp until the end of the war. Her record on Discovery reveals that Sansom was awarded both the George Cross and the MBE.
She is pictured above with her medals next to General Marie-Pierre Koenig, the wartime leader of the French Resistance, at the 1970 VE Day anniversary.
