28 March 2018

Ray Piggott

Yesterday I received an email from Louise asking me to research two WWI medals that she had found in a house she recently move in to. The medals were awarded to VX82640 Lance Bombardier Raymond Charles Piggott.
Ray died in 2003 but I couldn't find a death notice for him. The only clue I had was from the 1972 Electoral Roll which had showed that a Kenneth Robert Piggott lived at the same address as Ray. I assumed that this was a son. For an hour I was frustrated by not being able to narrow done what happened to Kenneth after 1972. All I found was one reference, along with an email address, to a Ken Piggott. Taking yet another punt I fired off an email to Ken and sure enough I had Ray's son.
The returned medal tally is now 2208.

18 March 2018

Australian Defence Medal awarded to GNR D.R. Muir

This particular return really maximised the use of online resources.
It commenced with an email from my mate Tim Lycett who is a property officer with the Queensland Police Service. He was in possession for an Australian Defence Medal awarded to a D.R. Muir. An email to a friend of mine who is far better at these things than me, and aided with Mr Muir's service number, identified the full name of recipient and was able to give me a geographic location for where he lived.
This led to the next part of the search and I found Mr Muir on Facebook. I provided Tim with all the details I had and it was also through Facebook that Tim was able to contact Mr Muir.
This morning I received a message from Tim to say that yesterday Mr Muir collected his ADM. Apparently the medal had been stolen from his car around Christmas.
Thanks to Paul for being able to connect the number, initials and name for me.
The returned medal tally is now 2206.