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"...she came to a low curtain, behind which was a door about eighteen inches high:she tried the little key in the keyhole, and it fitted! Alice opened the door,and looked down a small passage, not larger than a rat-hole, into the loveliest garden you ever saw..."

Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland"

Sometimes when browsing the internet it is easy to feel that behind every door there is a vast garden to explore and beyond that no doubt more doors to other gardens.

There's a British government-sponsored organisation called The National Archives. I accessed their online facilities today in order to track down evidence that my maternal grandfather was indeed awarded a Military Medal after World War One. It is a vast data bank - covering far more zones than simply World War One medals.

Unsurprisingly, the name "Wilfred Henry Jackson" is not unique but I am 99% confident that I found the correct "medal card". Frustratingly, it doesn't say why he received the medal when thousands of other rank and file soldiers missed out but it is clear that the MM (Military Medal) was awarded for "bravery in the field". By the way, brave officers received a different medal - "The Military Cross", no doubt to distinguish themselves from the cannon fodder - our nation's dispensable working classes. However, like my paternal grandfather - Philip, my maternal grandfather also made it back home though heaven knows what happened to the medal itself...