11 June 2008

A long search has now ended

One medal that has haunted me for some time has been the BWM awarded to 1856 PTE James Barrington -Kersland, Camel Corps. B-K intrigued me because of his service during WWI and WWII, his life as a journalist and some of the correspondence that is in his service record. The medal itself was also interesting because a medal to a Camel Corps member is pretty rare. I also know it's value and I've had several offers to buy it off me.
I had come to a dead end some time ago and the leads ran out at the Fawkner Cemetery in Melbourne. I went as far as to visit the grave site of B-K and his wife Lizzie in the hope that there was a grave stone that might give a clue to other family members. Unfortunately, the grave sites are bare plots with only the plot number visible after some cleaning. I was even tempted to bury the medal at the plot.
Once again Bill has come through with the contact details for a family member. This brings the medals returned count to 386.