Thomas Carseldine

This return is the second lot of medals sent to me recently by Charlie S. These are the Pacific Star and Australian Service Medal 1939-45 awarded to QX13582 Thomas Carseldine. Thomas was also awarded 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal.

Thomas was 39 years old when he enlisted and saw a lot of overseas service as a gunner in the 1st Anti Tank Regiment. (I've corrected Thomas' age. I should have paid better attention to the service record. He was 39 not 59)

 

Thomas was single and died in 1975. He was from a large family and it is though his brother Frank, that I've recently contacted the current generation.

Thanks to Charlie who sent me these as well as the Stoker medals. The returned medal tally is now 3027.

RAAF WWII pair - Arthur Stoker

439794 Leading Aircraftsman Arthur Frederick William Stoker was an 18 year old from Ballina, NSW when he enlisted in the RAAF on 31 Jul 43. I find it interesting that his enlistment papers show his civilian trade as 'Confectionary Assistant', but later documents indicate he was trained as a radio technician. His employer was the HMV Radio Company. 

When he applied for discharge in 1946, he stated his father was an electrical contractor and radio salesman in Ballina and Arthur was required to go back to work in the family business.

Arthur's full medals entitlement is the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45 and are pictured below 

Thanks to Charlie S who sent these medal to me. I've recently been in contact with Arthur's grand daughter and I'll send her the medal tomorrow as it is her birthday.

The returned medal tally is now 3025.

Post update

I've recently been provided a photo of Wilfred Smith and the post has been updated. 

Lost Medals Australia: 3rd Light Horse Regiment KIA

R McI Rogers

Two of the medals awarded to NX167650 Robert McIlveen Rogers were sent to me in 2014 by the Ipswich RSL. I thought the unusual middle name might make the search straight forward but I was wrong. All public information abruptly stopped in 1980 which put a pause on the research

As part of my recent review of some old searches I came across a family tree which included Robert. This afternoon, in response to my message via Ancestry.com, I received a call from Robert's daughter. This is Margaret, who has kindly shared a photo of Robert wearing his full medal entitlement.

We have come to the conclusion that these two medal were with another family member before being given to the RSL and then forwarded on to me. 

I find it interesting that Robert's middle name is depicted as McI on the medal.

The retuned medal tally is now 3023. 

William Henry Lee - WWI pair

Another search I revisited recently has now been successful following the additional of some family details added to Ancestry.com.

I was first contacted on 11 May 2018 by James F who had come across two WWI medals during the clean up of a deceased estate. This was in Dudley, Newcastle, NSW. The medals were awarded to 7015 William Henry Lee. William's service record is pretty straight forward, except for one document which gives the details of an English lady he married in Bedford, UK, in 1917. This was Mabel May Bettles. After WWI the settled in Newcastle. 

It appears that some time around 1931, William and Mable divorced. He then married Julia in 1935. Julia was also divorced and he several children from his previous marriage.

William died in 1944 and it is his death notice which gave me the first series of clues about his decendants.

 William's grave is rather simple.

After revisiting this search almost 8 years to the day that James originally contacted me, I was able to narrow down the family I was looking for thanks to new information being posted online. William's medals, which look to have had a hard life, will soon be reunited with other medals from his broader family.

The returned medal tally is now 3021. 

 

Bert Potter's WWII medals

The search for the family of S20848 Bert Potter started when I received a message from Wayne G following a referral from RSL Care SA. Wayne had purchased these medal and was kindly trying to return them to Bert's family. 

As I've mentioned many time, South Australia has not released records which help searches like this. Electoral rolls are a usual start point when trying to confirm residential locations and the names of others in that house hold. As a result is took a bit of time to work out that Bert did not marry. Luckly. a few Ancestry tress included his wider family so I was able to draw some tentative threads to the current generation. Based simply on a link to a geographic location, I contacted a lady who indeed is a member of the Potter family and from there connected her with Wayne to coordinate the return of the Bert's medals. 

The returned medal tally is now 3019.

WWI trio - Albert Hampstead

I've worked with Sabina previously on research for lost medals. She recently contacted me again about the WWI trip awarded to 3332 Albert William Hampstead.

It didn't take me long to identify Albert's family tree and work out the name of the current generation. Through a combination of information from Ancesrty.com and social media Sabina and I narrowed down the contact details of a descendant of Albert. Sabina contacted that person and as it turns out, Albert's 96 year old daughter is still alive. 

This was a wonderful collaboration to see three more medals returned to the family.

The returned medal tally is now 3014.

3rd Light Horse Regiment KIA

I have a great contact through the Army Museum network who is also involved in the Launceston RSL. This is Pete W and we recently had a discussion about a number of medals which needed to be researched and returned to the families. Pete sent me these medals recently and I hope to publish a number of stories in the near future about the soldiers and their medals.

The first medal from this collection to be returned was awarded to 1396 PTE Wilfred Smith. Wilfred was a member of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment. He was 31 years old when he enlisted on 27 July 1915. Wilfred was married to Kathleen and they had a baby daughter, Ida Gloria. 

After joining his regiment in early 1916, Wilfred fought in the Battle of Romani. He was killed in action on 4 August 1916. Even though his service record states he was buried in the field and the burial was officiated by a chaplain, he is recorded as having no know grave. Wilfred is commemorated on the Jerusalem War Memorial.

I found Wilfred's details on an Ancestry family tree which is owned by his great grandson. This is Keith who also lives in Tasmania. I'll send him Wilfred's British War Medal in the near future.

The returned medal tally is now 3011.

Update: 15 May 26

Thank you to Keith who has provided this picture of Wilfred.

Laurie Cartwright and a direct family connection to these WWII medals

An advantage of not working full time now is that I can revisit some of the longer term research tasks I have. This afternoon I pulled out the index card for the medals awarded to NX9218 Laurence Cartwright not thinking I would have much success. 

I received Laurie's WWII group of five in 2009 from the Directorate of Honours and Awards after they were handed. At the time Laurie's service record had not been digitised on the NAA and there was limited information on Ancestry. Today's review threw up two pieces of information which were the key to contacting Laurie's nephew.

Sometimes, his first name is spelt Lawrence and he had a middle name of Culshaw which only appears once in Australin records. Laurie was born in New Zealand in 1913. He moved to Sydney prior to the outbreak of WWII and was one of the early enlistees as can be seen by his low service number.

After the war, Laurie and his wife, Winifred lived at several address in the Sydney North Shore. Once I worked out his name variations, I came across an Ancestry family tree which it turns out, belongs to Laurie's nephew. This is Chris from New Zealand and the son of Laurie's sister. 

Chris has provided me some great information and family anecdotes. Chris met Laurie and Win when they visited New Zealand in the 1950s. The description Chris gives is that Laurie lived a carefree lifestyle including living for a time on a motor launce on the Hawksbury River.

Chris and his family lived for a while in Sydney and got to now Laurie and Win better. However, tragedy struck when Laurie was killed in 1968/9 while riding his scooter. Chris tells me that even though he retuned to New Zealand in 1973, he remained close to Win until her death in 1990.

It is becoming less common for a family member I contact to have a direct link to WWII veterans. These medals will be sent to Chris in the near future with a whole lot of new information about his uncle once I can access his service record. 

The returned medal tally is now 3010.