LAC Yeates - WWII group of four

I have recently revisited several searches that have stalled for one reason or another. This particular search commenced in 2016 when I received four WWII medals awarded to 308282 LAC Cyril James Yeates from the Delegate RSL.

Cyril was 19 years old when he enlisted in 1941 and served as a cook's assistant. His service record consists of 55 pages which are mostly routine entries although his conduct record has some interesting entries. Despite a civil offence of larceny he was rated as having good conduct. 

Cyril died in 1957 having never married. My search then took me down the family line of his aunty Florence Digney (nee Yeates). The Yeates and Digney families lived in Tasmania but I soon ran out of leads to contact a living relative. That is where I put the research aside until earlier this week when I had another look on Ancestry and found Cyril on a Digney family tree. The tree owner, Lorraine, called me this morning and we determined the best person to become the custodian of the medal is a great grand nephew of Cyril's.

Through Lorraine the medals will soon be with another generation of the Digney family which has a long family military history, including a forebear who fought at Waterloo with Wellington.

The returned medal tally is now 2995. 

  

VS Murray WWII group of three which should be four

These three medals were awarded to NX50855 Vincent Sullivan Murray. I suspect that the War Medal is missing from the group as the ribbon for this medal is in the original packaging Vincent received. This entitlement is confirmed in his service record.

Vincent did marry after the War, however, he divorced and did not have any children. On his enlistment papers, Vincent listed his brother William as his NOK. William had a daughter and through this family line I was able to contact Vincent's great nephew.

The medals came to me anomalously. The donor found them when the house of a hoarder was cleaned out. This kind person contacted the Directorate of Honours and Awards who passed on my details. Vincent's medals were saved from being thrown in a skip and will now be sent to his family.

I've included a picture of Vincent from his service record. Of note is that the 1939-45 Star is engraved, rather than impressed. A reference book I have note that hand engraving occurred in the 1970 when stars that were originally issued as blank were returned for official naming. 

The retuned medal tally is now 2991. 

WWII and LSGC group to RAN

This group of WWII medals has a couple of additional medals which tell a broader story of service than would appear on first glance.

I received these medals from the NSW RSL. They were awarded to Chief Petty Officer Cook Keith Ernest Hind. Keith enlisted in to the Royal Australian Navy in 1927 and discharged in 1949. This length of service entitled him to the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal  (George VI version) which is the second last in his group. The last medal is the Philippine Liberation Medal.

Keith died in 1982 having never married so I traced a relative through his sisters line. I'll soon send Keith's medals to his niece Diane.

Thanks to Ivan from the NSW RSL who sent me the medals. The returned medal tally is now 2988.

Defence Force Service Medal

This return has more than the usual number of coincidence.

Today, I received an email from Brianna of the Vietnam Veterans Federation, Granville, NSW. Brianna told me that a Defence Force Service Medal had been handed in many years ago and successive attempts to find the owner had come to naught. Brianna further went on to say: 

    'Unfortunately, I do not have the details of who specifically handed the medal in to the organisation         as this occurred before my time here, and allegedly many years ago to the point where employees         had stopped searching after being unable to locate the owner'.

Thankfully, Brianna took up the challenge and contacted Defence Honours and Awards who provided her my contact details. The name was familiar to me and it took an hour or so to narrow down the recipient to a chap I served with in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in the mid 1980s. We all know him as Sweed.

Sweed is a member of our regiment olds and bolds social media page so I got in contact to make sure I had the correct person. Sure enough I had the right soldier. I've connected Brianna and Sweed so the medal can be returned. Sweed tells me he thought the medal was lost after a house fire at a friend's place. How it eventually turned up at the Vietnam Veterans Federation will remain a mystery.

Thank you to my wonderful 2 Cav Regt friends how bought my message to Sweed's attention.

The returned medal tally is now 2981.

   

 

Contemporary RAN medals

There is a bit of a cycle which occurs every so often with the research I do. This round seem to be that the circumstances which saw the medals lost, how they were recovered or the veteran's identity means there is very little that can be told of the over all story.

The pictured medals were awarded to a veteran who served in the Royal Australian Navy and are just a portion of what is being returned.  

The returned medal tally is now 2980. 

Assistance to New South Wales Police

The relationships I have with the Australian Federal Police and all the State and Territory police forces have been long standing and continue to grow. This particular return follows a request from the NSW Police Force but due to the circumstances I wont be showing pictures of the names on the medals.

The medals happen to be held at a police station close to where I live and I collected them on Thursday. I had a low level of confidence of a quick return, however, that turned out to be completely wrong. By Friday I had the family tree resolved and the name of the veteran's daughter. By Saturday I had the daughter's married name and in turn the name's of her daughters. I came across a link to this family on Ancestry but the account had not been accessed for over 12 months. After sending a message to the account owner, I received a response within a couple of hours and will now be able to return this entire family connection in the near future.

The returned medal tally is now 2969.

WWII Pacific Star

This is the story of the second success I've had after receiving three medals awarded to two different veterans from Lauren D.

This Pacific Star was awarded to VX22662 John Raymond Beaumont. What is interesting is that the medal is hand engraved rather than impressed. However, John's records explain this.

After he enlisted in June 1940, John was serving with  2/22nd Infantry Battalion and saw active service in Rabual. In February 1943 John was promoted to Acting Warrant Officer Class Two and posted to the 1st Water Transport Group. On 24 March 1943, John died of injuries he accidently received following an explosion aboard water transport ship AS 6 in Oro Bay, NG. John left behind his wife Elizabeth and daughters; Joan and Wendy.   

In 1972, John's widow applied to have his medals replaced after they were lost. This explains the hand engraving on the Pacific Star which I received. It is not the original awarded medal but appears to be an official replacement although there is no (D) for duplicate or (R) for replacement. 

John's daughter died in 2022 and I found her death notice. This notice gave me the first names of John's grand children but nothing to indicate where they lived or their surnames. The only clue I found useful was the name of the funeral director who conducted the funeral. I sent the company a message and received wonderful assistance from Karen A who forwarded my details to John's family.

This morning I spoke to John's grand daughter, Sharon who I'll send his medal to in the near future. I am very grateful to Sharon who provided my a picture of John to use in this post.

The returned medal tally is now 2951.    

WWII RAAF pair

It is often the case that when I commence some research I have a flurry of activity which includes the veteran's service information and the family details when they were serving. Then, I can usually track a person through publicly available records. The next step often involves accessing genealogy web site an often the contact details are old or the account hasn't been accessed for some time. The result is that the initial rush of activity is followed by silence and no progress at all. When I think I have a load of stories to post I have actually nothing. This story, and the one to follow, are the opposite of this set of circumstances.

In late December I received a parcel from Lauren D who lives in Victoria. She had come across three medals awarded to two different WWII veterans and asked me to return them. This story is about the War Medal and Australian Service Medal 1939-45 awarded to 125596 John William Wood. As soon as I saw the naming of the medals I knew I was dealing with a member of the RAAF. The number was the first clue but the naming style that is impressed on the rim of the medal is distinctively RAAF. At the time these medals were awarded, each service was responsible for the naming and distribution of medals. The RAAF style is very that the name is rather more heavily impressed than those awarded to Army members.

From John's record his personal details made it easy to follow him, it even included the name of his first born son. However, the records dried up after about 1980 and I couldn't make to final leap to current contact details. Although what was consistent was that all the records indicate John and his family remained in Victoria.

John died in 1985 and included on an Ancestry tree belonging to Phil G. Phil had recently accessed his account so I fired of a message explaining why I was looking to contact John's family. It was through this connection that I was able to speak to John's son Peter this morning. Peter is a National Serviceman and understands that the medals are easily identifiable as his father's. I'll post these medals to Peter in the very near future.

Thank you to Lauren for sending me these medals and to Phil for the information which was so helpful in finalising this research.

The returned medal tally is now 2950.