James Alfred Hansell

This search was one which ended up coming full circle, not how I expected but the connection was three residents in one street.

I was first contacted by Rob who had received, through his family, a WWI trio awarded to 3320 Driver James Alfred Hansell, 2nd Battalion, AIF. Rob knew the medals came from a neighbour of his father's on the NSW Central Coast of NSW. The medals were handed to Rob's father in the early 1970s. What confused Rob and I was the name difference between the neighbour and those on the medals. 

After a lot of frustration, because I couldn't make the records fit the circumstances, I asked Rob the address where his father had lived. I was able to connected the neighbour at number 30 in the same street where Rob's father lived at number 15. Then things got really difficult.

After WWI, James married Mary Buchan Fife Moaut in 1921. James died in 1926 and his obituary was published in the local Narrandera newspaper. James' death looks to be the result of his war service.     

James came Narrandera and Mary lived there for a few years before moving to Sydney. Mary was easy to track through the electoral rolls until the early 1950s but then she disappeared. I couldn't find any record that she died, so more frustration crept into the search. 

Luckily, Mary had two distinctive middle names and this led me to find that in 1954 she married Edgar Lehman. Over the next 10 years Mary and Edgar lived in different locations across New South Wales and Queensland. In the late 1960s they settled in the Central Coast suburb of Saratoga. The electoral roll confirmed that they lived at number 36 of the same street as Rob's father. Finally, I had the connection.

What Rob and I think happened is at some point Mary handed James' medals to the neighbour then that neighbour gave them to Rob's father.  

I've been in contact with James' great great nephew, also a Central Coast resident, and will send him the medals, along with a returned from active service badge.

To add to the issues I faced with this search, the naming on the 1914-15 Star has been almost erased. However, there is enough information visible to know this was James' medal.

The returned medal tally is now 2772.