Mercantile Marine Great War Anomaly

Dear Sir, In your November 2016 edition you highlighted how stringencies of regulations meant that a number of those involved in air combat over the UK did not qualify for Battle of Britain accreditation. A while ago, whilst researching some family history, I came across another quirky anomaly. This time, seemingly applied to a possibly sizeable number of merchant seamen lost at sea in the First World War and perhaps subsequently.