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.
