I have a gold medal with the inscription
Presented to Roland Voyce by the inhabitants of Bream for conspicuous bravery May 26th.1915.
Is there anyone who might have further information on this?

by the inhabitants of Bream for conspicuous bravery May 26th.1915
Rowland was approx 46 and a coal miner (?)

So looking for a Rowland with "strong" Bream connections :-

Name: Rowland Voice
Date of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec 1868
Registration district: Monmouth
Inferred County: Monmouthshire
Volume: 11a
Page: 19

Year: 1868
Month: Sep
Day: 12
Parents_Surname: VOICE
Child_Forenames: Rowland
Fathers_Forenames: Jonas
Mothers_Forenames: Elizabeth
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Mill Hill
Occupation: Miner
Officiating_Minister: CA Maskay[?]
Event: Baptism
Memoranda: [1] p[rivate] [2] (2)
Notes: Memoranda [2] denotes entered in register in wrong order - previous entry August 30 next 2 entries September 13 & September 2.
Register_Reference: P57 IN 1/3
Page_Number: 75
Parish_Chapel: Bream

1871
Jonas Voice 45
Elizabeth Voice 30
Goodwin G Voice 4
Rowland Voice 2
Defsey Voice 4 Months

1881
Jonas Voce abt 1826 St Briavels, Gloucestershire, England Head West Dean, Gloucestershire
Elizabeth Voce abt 1833 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Wife West Dean, Gloucestershire
Goodwin Voce abt 1867 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Son West Dean, Gloucestershire
Rowland Voce abt 1869 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Son West Dean, Gloucestershire
Dessey Voce abt 1871 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Daughter West Dean, Gloucestershire
Fanny Voce abt 1873 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Daughter West Dean, Gloucestershire
Lucy Voce abt 1873 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Daughter West Dean, Gloucestershire
Jonas Voce abt 1875 West Dean, Gloucestershire, England Son West Dean, Gloucestershire

VOYCE Rowland
MEEK Henrietta
Forest of Dean Monmouth Register Office
1892 16 65

1901 Mill Hill Bream
Rowland Voyce abt 1869 Newland, Gloucestershire, England Head West Dean, Monmouthshire Coal Hewer
Henrietta Voyce abt 1869 Newland, Gloucestershire, England Wife West Dean, Monmouthshire
Frederick Meek abt 1892 Newland, Gloucestershire, England Nephew West Dean, Monmouthshire

Name: Rowland Voyce
Birth Date: abt 1869
Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1930
Age at Death: 61
Registration district: Monmouth
Inferred County: Monmouthshire
Volume: 11a
Page: 21

Year: 1930
Month: Mar
Day: 12
Surname: VOYCE
Forenames: Rowland
Residence: Maypole Bream
Age_at_death: 61
Officiating_Minister: Wm. J. Joyce
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes: Entry in Left Margin - 25037/35
Register_Reference: P57 IN 1/18
Page_No: 40
Parish_Chapel: Bream

I have checked the Inquest database and nothing comes up.....

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Thank you Slowhands.I am wondering if it was for some act of bravery in a coal mine.Will be glad of any information about it from anyone who may have heard about it.Am looking into it for a member of the family who has no idea what happened and would love to discover the facts.Thanks for your prompt reply.

Hi Olwyn

Suggest you contact Gia Sessa who is a user on this site. Karen Sessa, his wife, is, I think, a direct descendent of the Voyces shown in the 1881 census. She has done extensive research into the Voyces.

Dave

Good afternoon Olwyn,
You may have seen this excellent website re the History of Coalmining. Among many interesting features they have a searchable database of over 160,000 records of mining accidents across the UK. Sadly in this instance the name Voyce doesn't show a direct hit, presumably as Rowland wasn't the actual casualty reported. The only Voyce/Voice mentioned is this one who I guess could be in your tree ?.

Name: VOYCE Martin (injured)
Age: 27
Date: 06/04/1925
Year: 1925
Occupation: Asst. repairer
Colliery: Llwynypia
Owner: Glamorgan Coal Co Ltd
Town:
County: Glamorgan
Notes: Acting as rider and missed taking chain off - crushed between post and journey.

see http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/disasters/index.html

IMPORTANT NOTE !
I find great care is needed when using this site's search engine. Don't enter too much info into a search, as it will give many irrelevant hits, or, alternately, may miss some. Why I don't know...
I suggest enter say "Bream" to give a list of accidents including that word. The right hand coloums of the list include dates and often area, so you can scan the page visually for the likely hits to click on for further details.
Repeat this process for perhaps "Princess Royal" or "Flour Mill".
Sounds time consuming perhaps but its far more effective this way and of course more rewarding if you succeed.
Some of the hits will have an asterix against the individual's name. If you find out what this means I'd like to know !

Hope this is of some interest, good luck !

ps please also see my email to you.
Thanks Jeff

pps if you contact the local Newspapers they may well be able to help you, if only by printing your letter and receiving feedback from readers; The Forester(ex Citizen/Mercury) and the DF Review. Also if you search the FoD Forum you'll find means to research old newspapers which will have undoubtedly covered the subject in 1915.

Thank you Dave.I will do that.

Thank you for the info.Jeff.Also thanks for the email.I do use that site and will see what I can find there.

No problem, glad to hopefully help.
Are you in or near the Forest ?
Unfortunately for me re my fairly recent start to researching my Forest roots, I've never had the opportunity to visit the local archives etc. I've just spoken to my sister who works at The Forester office in Cinderford. She confirms that they don't really have a formal system for researching the old Mercury archives which they do proudly hold going back into the late 1800s. It seems that visitors do sometimes go thro their archives at their offices, apparently at no cost although advance notice is requested. She already is "very busy" with her usual workload so understandably isn't keen to research their archives, even for me ! She recommends we use Cinderford Library as the paper's archives are held there on microfiche, so a far quicker & easier search, as far as she knows the Library is still open contrary to what I was hearing.

EDIT: Following recent reorganisation Cinderford Library is thankfully still open most days but only til 5pm except 7pm Fridays. It is open Saturday but only 10-1pm so I guess time for researchers may be limited then. I do not know whether prior booking is needed or preferred.
see

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=22727

There appear to be at least a couple of Rowland/ROLAND VOYCE's on the 1911 census, one born c1867 and one born 1883 - (and both living in Monmouth, Monmouthshire)

(Ancestry) British Army WW1 Medal Rolls Index

Rowland F VOYCE - Royal Engineers

RE Spr (T) 3667494893 Victory RE/101/1326 58247

---

??
FOD records

Baptism at Abenhall - 22 January 1888

Rowland Frank VOYCE, parents Robert (Miner) & Susan Felicia

Ahha ! Well done Marilyn (yet again!) that looks probable.

I did wonder if this might be related to WW1, as so many miners were involved in the Tunnelling Companies etc. However I presumed this might not be the case here as:
1. surely the family would still know of such things nowadays ? However I guess that sadly medals do get sold on, especially perhaps in the 30s depression, or buried with their owner, etc etc.
2. this enquiry seemed to me to be prior to the real Trench stalemate that resulted in such Companies being formed. This excellent website for all things WW1 shows me to be wrong, as the first such units in the British Army were formed in early 1915...
http://www.1914-1918.net/tunnelcoyre.htm

If this is "our" Rowland it's great to see he survived the war, to earn his Victory Medal, plus I cannot see him recorded as a casualty on the CWGC site (that said, this site "only" lists known wargraves. Another site has indicated a WR Voyce of Mitcheldean died during WW1, but I'm not a subscriber so have no more details.
http://www.military-genealogy.com/searchResults.php?product=ww1&q_initials=r&q_...

At first the "Spr(T)" prefix to the Army Number fooled me, til I realised it is of course Sapper, equivalent rank to a Private. I wonder if the (T) is for Tunnelling ?.

Looking at this website, Robert VOYCE - (Rowland's father?)

date: 18 December 1882, Monmouth, age 29, Blacksmith, height 5 feet 9 inches

is on the list of Royal Engineers, address Shortstanding, near Coleford

Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers

http://www.monmouthcastlemuseum-archives.org.uk/regsearch.php?func=listsurnames

FOD records

Marriage at Christchurch 15 September 1872

Robert VOYCE, Bachelor, (Blacksmith) - residence West Dean

father: Henry VOYCE, Carpenter

married

Sarah COOPER (Widow) - residence Shortstanding

father: Thomas JONES (deceased)

witnesses; Thomas BAKER/Jane JONES

THANKYOU ! for this great site, all new to me and a real boon for my own RE researches.

"The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers can be traced back to 1539 . In 1877, the Regiment accepted an invitation, as part of the Cardwell Reforms, to become a Special Reserve section of the rapidly developing Royal Engineers, which would allow them to serve overseas, which as a militia unit they were not entitled to do.
During the Great War the regiment formed four Siege Companies, two Railway Companies, two Army Troops Companies, and a Depot Company in Monmouth which recruited and trained new volunteers

76 officers and 2113 men served on the Western Front, Gallipoli, the Middle East, and Italy. 5 DSOs, 8 MCs, 12 DCMs and 16 MMs were awarded to members of the Regiment during the Great War."

And from the Tunnelling link I mentioned earlier

"171st Tunnelling Company
Formed of a small number of specially enlisted miners, with troops selected from the Monmouthshire Siege Company,RE. First employed in March 1915 in the Hill 60/Bluff areas at Ypres. Moved to Ploegsteert in July 1915 and commenced mining operations near St Yves. April 1916 saw a move to the Spanbroekmolen/Douve sector facing the Messines ridge. Forced to move from camp at Boeschepe in April 1918, when the enemy broke through the Lys positions and were then put on duties that included digging and wiring trenches over a long distance from Reninghelst to near St Omer."

It would appear that Rowland was perhaps involved at the infamous Ypres area.

Olwyn, I suggest contacting the Monmouth RE Museum will likely be very worthwhile.

Thanks.Yes I do live in the Dean so will be able to search.Thanks for your input.

Thanks to everyone finding info.I don't think the war medal refers to my Roland but I will carry on the research anyway.What a great site this is.

One of my grandfathers brothers was in this unit in the 1890's before becoming a London policeman for 26 years between 1900 and 1926.

The Monmouthshire Militia was one of many that mirrored the regular army infantry regiments in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. They only served in UK until 1814 when some were sent to Spain in the closing stages of the Peninsular War.

In the early 1800's it was titled Monmouthshire and Brecon Militia (that is infantry). Royal was added to the title in 1804. In 1877, the Regiment was transferred to the Royal Engineers. In the 1890's it had 3,000+ officers and men, over 3 times what one would expect.

I would'nt be surprised if not a few FoD men served in this Regiment.

Roger

W. R. VOYCE, Micheldean died WW1 - The Mitcheldean War Memorial commemorates Wallace VOYCE under Abenhall Parish.

The only W Voyce in this site's Abenhall records is;

Record_ID: 1267
Entry_Number: 497
Year: 1880
Month: Oct
Day: 10
Parents_Surname: VOYCE
Child_Forenames: Wallace Robert
Fathers_Forenames: Robert
Mothers_Forenames: Susan Felicia
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Abbenhall
Occupation: Miner
Officiating_Minister: S.J. Johnson MA Rector
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P1 IN 1/8
Page_Number: 63
Parish_Chapel: Abenhall
Soundex: V200

So the full name agrees with that referred in my earlier post.

Ancestry - UK Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919

Wallace Robert VOYCE

Birth Place: Mitcheldean, Glos

Death Date: 7 October 1917

Death Location: France & Flanders

Enlistment: Newport, Mon

Rank: Private

Battalion: 21st Battalion

Number: 51520

Type of Casualty: Died of Wounds

Theatre of W: Western European Theatre

Comments: Formerly 47588, Liverpool Regt.

1891 Census, Abenhall

VOYCE

Robert - 47 - Iron Miner, born East Dean
Susan T - 42 - born Herford, Aston Ingham
George T - 19
Albert H A - 18
Flora F - 16
Eldena W - 10 (Eldred W VOYCE - died 1955 age 77)
Wallace - 10 - born Abenhall
Frederick C - 6
Rowland F - 3

Thanks everyone for the information. My great uncle is the Rowland Voice/Voyce born in 1868. He did not serve in WW1, as he would have been too old. Parents were Elizabeth and Jonas Voice. I believe he worked at the Princess Royal Colliery.
Thanks again. Karen Sessa