Hi Rita,
thanks for sending us the sunshine, just had a very long day working outside making the best of it, pleased to catch your post before turning-in.
I'm really pleased you've confirmed which of the various William H James was your Howard - please admin could you tack this thread onto the original one, for continuity of reading, thanks ?.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43007

I've not used the IWM site for research altho have visited the Museum some years ago. Please can you enlarge upon how they were able to help confirm which of the three William H James shown on the Glosters website was your William Howard James ?. Presumably they had additional records carrying his middle name &/or next of kin ?.

Not doubting your findings at all, but would love to know more if possible as may be usefull for other reseachers,
thanks again, Jeff.

Re the 9th Glosters, to enlarge a little on Harry Brook's authorative post in the above thread;

"9th (Service) Battalion
Formed at Bristol in September 1914 as part of K3 and came under command of 78th Brigade in 26th Division. Moved to Codford St Mary but by November 1914 was in billets in Cheltenham. Moved to Longbridge Deverill in April 1915.
Landed in France 21 September 1915.
Moved to Salonika in November 1915.
4 July 1918 : left Division and returned to France.
21 July 1918 : attached to 198th Brigade in 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division.
22 September 1918 : became Pioneer Battalion to same Division."

From the ever-helpfull Long Trail site http://www.1914-1918.net/glos.htm

For much more detail & personal accounts abt Salonika campaign, goto this page on the Gloster's Museum website and track down to heading "1918 Salonika..."
http://www.glosters.org.uk/textonly_timeline/5

Also, to recap,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldiers_of_Gloucestershire_Museum
http://www.glosters.org/
http://www.glosters.org.uk/collections/

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"New" WW1 Records Database !;

Your post is timely as, according to an email I received just today, the FindMyPast website now claim to have found "over half a million men whose details were buried deep within other records, so you won’t have found them before."

"Whilst examining the 35 million images in these two series (ie WO Service and Pension Records), we identified lists of soldiers tucked away within individual service papers and indexed these as well, adding a further 584,000 names. Findmypast now offers the most complete and the most accurate index of these records."
http://100in100.findmypast.co.uk/?sisearchengine=1068&siproduct=Email&utm_sourc...

This could well be very helpfull news regarding some of the recent WW1 Soldiers this forums been trying to trace, I do hope so. That said, I've already stumbled upon some of these "hidden" files while searching Ancestry, and posted as much on here, so I've no doubt many other forum users were also aware that some lateral searching of images may yield rewards. Next time I visit my public library I'll be retrying the FMP site which is free as well as Ancestry, I think FMP already held more Military Records than Ancestry certainly for pre WW1 Campaigns. For those who don't have free library access, FMP also now offer one month subscriptions which seem good value.

The medal index card for William H. James 17311 Gloucestershire Regt. shows that he landed in France on 20.9.1915 (so with the original landing of 9th Battalion) and was entitled to the 1915 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal.
It would be quite easy to get a replica set of copy medals on ebay. They would, of course, not be impressed with his name, number and Regt. as the originals
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Medals-WW1-1914-15-Star-British-War-Victory-Medals-AGED-Trio-...