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.