02 July 2024

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. 

       


2 comments:

  1. Thank you Glyn for all your hard work in reuniting my family with my father’s lost medals. Such an unexpected and wonderful surprise! They have now been reunited with his other medals which my mother cherishes.

    Such a wonderful thing that you do!
    Kind regards
    Rochelle Hatton

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well done!!

    ReplyDelete