Korean War medals mystery

Through a contact I have in the Directorate of Honours and Awards I was connected with the family of 33522 Trevor Rex McQuinn. They recently discovered that Trevor's medal group of five contained two medals which were named to someone else. 

There is no doubt about Trevor's entitlement to Korea Medal, Australian Service Medal with Korea and PNG clasps, Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Australian Defence Medal and UN Korea Medal. However, the Korea Medal and the UN Korea Medal are named to 21866 George Raymond Hatton. How these two medals came to be in Trevor's group is a mystery.

George died in 2003 but through a combination of information available in the electoral rolls and death notices I worked out the names of his children and eventually contacted his daughter. 

The family of Trevor and George have now been in touch and the medals will be returned. The next step is to locate the original Korean War medals awarded to 33522 Trevor Rex McQuinn. If anyone knows their location please send me a message. 

The returned medal tally is now 2897. 

       

Zebulon Ross Jeffrey - WWII, ANARE and the Vietnam War

This has been quite an interesting piece of research. It all started with an email from a friend of mine Shane R who I first served with in 1995. As the way is in the Army, our paths crossed on occasion as we were posted around the country and more recently we have been in touch through social media. Shane is now involved with an RSL sub-branch in South Australia and it is this context that he enlisted my help. 

Shane's sub-branch recently received several medals awarded to Zebulon Ross Jeffery who had an interesting service career. Zeb was obviously a smart man. Once he finished high school he was accepted in to the University of Queensland. Then, in 1944 he enlisted in the RAAF as aircrew. This is the link to his WWII service record. In May 1945 he was re-trained to be a Japanese linguist. Following the end of WWII, Zeb became part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force and stayed in Japan until he was discharged, at the rank of sergeant, in 1947.  

In 1967, Zeb enlisted in the Army (RASigs) and served in the Vietnam War. This is the link to his DVA service synopsis. He retired at the rank of major.

The medallion that comes with these medals is in recognition of Zeb's time with Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) as a radio physicist. This link is the obituary the ANARE Club published. 

Through a family tree on Ancestry I was able to connect Zeb's son and Shane so that the medals can be returned. The returned medal tally is now 2891.