Sergeant Ronald Swallow

Sergeant Ronald Swallow

Group photo showing five soldiers, including Ronald Swallow, taken in Arras in 1916 (see reverse/postcard style). Half length photo of Ronald Swallow wearing Machine Gun Corps uniform - taken in 1917. Ronald Swallow’s Honourable Discharge Certificate - dated 23 February 1917 – indicating his award of the Military Medal. She hope the missing medal will be returned to her one day.

This collection of artefacts relate to Marion Munroe’s father, Sergeant Ronald Swallow, who served in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the Machine Gun Corps - Service No.20044. Ronald died c.1937/38 from TB which was believed to have been contracted due to a Gun Shot Wound received during the war. Before his death Ronald was receiving treatment at a hospital in Leeds (possibly St. James’s). His wife, Elsie, was working as secretary a department of the War Office in Leeds. Although her father sometimes spoke of his wartime experiences, Marion was not particularly interested at the time – she was 14 when he died. Her mother received no pension afterwards as she remarried. The collection does not include Ronald’s Military Medal which was ‘lost’ when someone ‘borrowed’ it for historical research purposes and never returned it.

1916-17

Arras

Marion Munroe

Wolverhampton City Archives, 25 May 2019