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Quite a bit of mental gymnastics were needed to get to a solution with this search.
This Australian Defence Medal came to me via the wonderful team at the Joint Military Police Station - Sydney. LS EB was handed this medal on Anzac Day from a member of the public with a request for the medal to be returned.
The ADM was awarded to A111905 PB Carey. All I could determine from these details was that Carey was in the RAAF and from Queensland. This is determined by the A (Airman) and 1 (Queensland). Unfortunately, I was unable to find any clues as to what the initials PB stood for. His name or number isn't on Trove or the Vietnam War and Nasho's nominal rolls. Other research resources like BDM records and death notices provided any clues.
The more I searched the more I ended up going around in circles. My first thought tangent was to narrow down the time period Carey served. I found the individual with the service number immediately after Carey's served during the Vietnam War. From this I concluded Carey had enlisted in the late 1960s.
To my surprise there are a large number of people named Carey in the Australian Electoral rolls. Not having the full name caused several hours of scrolling through Ancestry elimination names like Peter or Paul. Eventually I got to Patrick and found a Patrick Bernard. There is one electoral roll entry from 1968 listing Patrick Bernard Carey with a residential address at RAAF Townsville.
This had to be my man but after 1968 the leads got messy again. From 1972 onwards there are two separate men by this name in the electoral rolls; one living in Sydney the other in Melbourne. There was no way to determine who was who. The Sydney based Patrick died in 2016. The death notices indicated he was an academic and had died in the UK but there was no mention of RAAF service.
I sent a message to the tree owner and this was the correct PB Carey I was looking for. Partrick's widow and children are still alive, I'll post them the medal in the near future.
Thank you to LS EB. Also, thank you to Bill F, Patrick's first cousin who has connected me with Patrick's family.
The returned medal tally is now 2935.
I'm sure this story will strike a cord with my RAInf friends.
Jason Lindgren was a rifleman with 2 RAR when his battalion deployed to East Timor in September 1999. He discharged in the early 2010s. What is significant about this family is that Jason's father also served in the Royal Australian Regiment, as has his four brothers. Sadly, Jason died in September 2023.
Somehow, Jason's INTEFET medal, along with some other personal items, became lost in the mail. The medal eventually found its way to me. It was a bit of a circuitous route to find Jason's brother who put me in touch with his father.
I spoke to Mr Lindgren this morning and it is going to be such a pleasure to post this medal back to Jason's family.
The returned medal tally is now 2934.
As soon as I saw service number of this solider, it didn't surprise me the reverse of stars in this medal group were un-named. Individuals who enlisted in the early months of WWII were awarded the stars they were entitled as soon as they became available. The stars did not include the service details on the reverse. However, the medals were named on issue. Following WWII, the soldiers who received the un-named medals were offered the choice to retain their stars as they were or return them and have their service details impressed.
These five medals were awarded to QX196 Thomas Foster. A very early enlistee from Queensland.
When he enlisted Thomas was married to Ivy Evelyn (nee Raper) and his service records they had two children. Thomas died in 1966 and Ivy in the 1989.
Their daughter was Ivy June who married Henry Ivan Tebbutt. This is a reasonably uncommon surname and I quickly found this family on several Ancestry tree. One of the children is named Grant but I just couldn't find his contact details. I sent a message one tree owner who kindle passed my request to Sharyn, a cousin of Grant's. Sharyn gave me some great family history background. She also made a comment that she recalled Grant worked for Defence. This was the clue I needed. I was able to track down Grant and we spoke today. The Tebbutt family has a strong history of service to Australia. Grant's father was a located at Gallipoli Barracks during WWII as part of the administration staff for the POW camp. He then went on to be the Staff Officer Grade 3 Training at1 MD. Grant's uncle Stan was a wireless operator in the RAAF and survived being shot down.
Thank you to Del who sent me the medals. Also, thanks to Amanda, Treval and Sharyn for all your assistance. The returned medal tally is now 2938.
Shortly after I posted the story of Jackie Trotter, I received an message from Dan J which read:
Hi Glyn, Great story about Trotter. I have his 1939-45 War Medal if you want to return it to Geoff to go alongside his 1939-45 Star. Thanks, Dan
I have been in contact with Dan for a year or so as I research some other medals he has sent me. I just couldn't believe the coincidence that he had read a story I posted and had another medal to the same solider.
This medal, along with Trotter's 1939-45 Star, will soon be sent to his nephew Geoff.
The returned medal tally is now 2933.
I recently received a message from Neil L a retired Royal Australian Navy veteran who had several medals he was keen to have returned to families. Neil sent me the medals and this is the first return.
This 1939-45 Star was awarded to VX139799 John William Trotter. My research led me to an Ancestry family tree and within 12 hours of sending a message to the tree owner I was speaking to John's nephew, Geoff. Since that discussion, Geoff has kindly sent me two photos. The first is of John, known as Jackie, as a boy and the second is a description of Jackie's war service which has far more detail than I could distill from his service record.
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After the war, Jackie married Thelma and they settled in South Australia. Jackie died on 21 Dec 67.
Geoff has maintained a connection with Jackie's unit association and he will have Jackie's medal in time for this year's Anzac Day parade.
The returned medal tally is now 2932.
It never fails to amaze me what turns up in the post. I recently received a package with no return address but there was an unsigned note asking me to please return to the original owner. The note suggested the veteran served with the 4th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment.
The medals in the package were the Australian Active Service Medal with clasp East Timor the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) medal and an Infantry Combat Badge.
A bit of searching led me to a former 2nd Commando Regiment soldier with the same initial/surname combination. I was confident I was on the right track since 4 RAR (CDO) completed a tour of East Timor in 2001 before being renamed 2 Cdo Regt. This person's first name is Ryan.
This morning I spoke to this veteran and Ryan confirmed he was indeed to person I was looking for. Ryan told me these medals went missing many years ago and while he was able to receive a replacement AASM, UN medals are not re-issued.
Thank you to the unknow sender.
The returned medal tally is now 2931.
This return stated with a message from Allison and ended having followed a path I would never have expected.
Allison's original message provided me with the service details of VF395580 Merle Chave Brown. This name wasn't familiar to Allison who had been given the medal while working in a nursing home in bayside Melbourne in 2012.
I found that Merel was the daughter of Alfred Ernest Brown and Elizabeth Mary Brown (nee Chave). She married Norman Douglas Graham who had been a POW during WWII. Merel and Norm didn't have any children of their own. However, Merel's death notice; she died in 2010, mentions she was an aunt, a great aunt and a great great aunt. This suggested to me that she was from a big extended family and probably still remembered.
Merle's sister, Pearl, had a son who was mentioned on her headstone. This gave me a name, Rodney, to follow. Through the abundance of information available on the internet I worked out Rodney's granddaughter's name. This was all pretty straight forward until I linked this lady to a name in Canberra which is very familiar to me. As it happens, the familiar name belongs to a school mate of mine. Despite us both coming from far off Perth we have both spent meany years in Canberra and bumped into each other on occasion. I fired of a message and sure enough, the young lady I was looking for is the girlfriend of my mate's son.
With this connection made, I was soon in touch with Rodney. He and Allison have met up recently and Merel's WWII medal is back with her family.
The returned medal tally is now 2928
This is not the first time I've had this set of circumstances occur but it is nice to have a positive solution.
The 1914-15 Star and British War Medal awarded to 6596 LCPL John McCarthy, Royal Munster Fusiliers was sent to me by the Morrissey family in 2010. 14 years ago it was quite difficult to research the background of a British solider, although I did work out he died on 9 May 1915. Every few years or so I would recheck the details to see if additional information had been posted online. I kept coming up empty handed.
Last week I received an email from the grandson of the original donor asking about the circumstances of the 2010 correspondence. This prompted me to revisit the research and, thanks to Ancestry, I found the information I needed.
These photos are of correspondence from John to his cousin Pat Morrissey naming Pat as his next of kin. There is also an interesting comment about a link to Victoria Barracks in Sydney but I couldn't work out what that connect is.
The connection to the Morrissey family was now established and the medals will be returned to the family who donated them all those years ago. As it turns out the new family custodian is a retried solider and these medals will join his own and his grandfathers.
The returned medal tally is now 2928.
This is the last of the medals from the recent package sent to me by the Directorate of Honours and Awards. Several of the other groups from this source were related to each other in a certain way, they were brothers or brothers in law. Even though all these medals were in the same box, the connection with this return but it took a bit longer to work out.
The first medal I looked at was the WWII War Medal awarded to 26867 Motor Mechanic Alan David Morgan, RAN. Alan's next of kin was his wife Kathleen Hilda (nee Chapman). The married in 1935 and had a daughter, Helen. Following being demobilised in May 1946, he became ill and died on 9 Feb 47 and is listed on the AWM roll of honour. Alan and Kathleen had a daughter, Helen Divina Morgan. All these details are on his headstone, even though it is a bit hard to read.
There is not much of a story about the actual medals awarded to NX7812 Robert James Edward Anderson. The real story is what happened in the years after Robert died on 23 August 1955. There is a series of letters from Robert's widow about his medals. Then in 2000, Robert's son, also named Robert, wrote to Defence again about the medals and details about Robert's WWII service. These letters are rather touching.
I started this search for the Anderson family in mid July 2024. The message I originally sent was forwarded to Robert's grandson, Les. As it turns our Robert (junior), died on 3 September 2024 so didn't know the final chapter of his father's medals. I'll send these to Les in the near future.
I usually post photos of the naming on each medal. However, these three medals awarded to Robert James Edward Anderson are still in their original wrapping and box.
The returned medal tally is now 2920.
The next medal to be returned that came out of the Directorate of Honours and Awards package is the British War Medal awarded to 3394 Sydney Jon Clinch, 55 Bn AIF. Sydney also saw service during WWII as N448269.
Sydney was from a prominent Taree, NSW family. This is the obituary of his father, James Robert Clinch. This name continued on in the Clinch family and Sydney named one of his sons James Robert.
The younger James also served during WWII in the militia with the number N448274. It looks like James was in a Reserved occupation and served part time. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the family in November 1944 when James died at the family property.
This medal was another surprise that came out of the recent package I received from the Directorate of Honours and Awards. The surprise being this is a Military Medal.
The recipient of this medal was 717 SGT James Emmett Bourke who served in 2nd Battalion, AIF. The medal makes up a lot of the information in SGT Bourke's record of service. There are letters relating to the loss of his medals, requests for replacements and even an inquiry as to why he was awarded the MM.
This group was an interesting one to research. Once again it is from the Directorate of Honours and Awards package Donna sent me.
The medals were awarded to Stanley Victor Charles. He served in WWII and was awarded the usual medals for someone who served in the Pacific. Following WWII he served in the newly formed Australian Regular Army (ARA) with the number 31354.
It was for this post WWII service he was awarded two other medals which what makes this group interesting. The first is the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with Australia clasp, the ERII version. Hand engraving is used to name this medal which also includes 'ARA' after the name. I've not seen this style before.
The second medal is the Meritorious Service Medal (Australia), also the ERII version.
Because Stanley served post WWII, his service record is not freely available yet, so it is difficult to know exactly what his service comprised of.
I found Stanly on an Ancestry tree and the tree owner responded very quickly to my message. This piece of research took about 15 minutes to get a result.
The returned medal tally is now 2915.
