C O Fitzgerald 9th LHR

The search for the family of 615 T/SGT Charles Otho Fitzgerald threw up many unexpected surprises. Charles was the son of Lord Charles Fitzgerald who was in turn a son of the 4th Duke of Leinster. Unsurprisingly, there is quite a bit about this family in the Victorian newspapers from the early 20th century. I've included a few articles below.
Charles was a member of  the 9th Light Horse Regiment. It would appear that he suffered an injury after being kicked by a horse and subsequently transferred to the Anzac Provost Corp. Charles brother George served as a captain in the 5th Battalion.
After the war Charles married Mary Pearl Millicent McIntosh but they didn't have any children. I followed the families of several of Charles' siblings and it was through his sister Mable that I have arrived at the current generation.
Mable married Robert McCracken who also served with the 5th Battalion. Robert was an original Anzac and this story provides some interesting information about his family.
It is Mabel's grandson who I've been in contact with and will return the medal to.
Thanks to Helen M who sent the medal to me.
The returned medal tally is now 1624.

 

 

 

John Jamison 3rd Light Horse Regiment

For the first few years after I started this endeavour, I would let people looking to return them keep the medal while I got on with the research. Unfortunately, on several occasions after having found a family, I discovered that the person with the medal had changed their mind, had given the medal away or sold it. This left the family confused and angry and my reputation in question. I had also invested many hours of research and often paid for documents from different archives. Bill and I decided that we wouldn't conduct any research unless we had the medal first.
When I'm contacted by a donor I now explain that I won't conduct any research without the medal.  In most cases this is an acceptable arrangement and I also commit to advising the donor of the outcome. The odd person would prefer not to send me the medal and do their own research. However, every now and then a set of circumstances arises which makes me disregard this policy altogether.
I was recent contacted by Frank of South Australia. Frank had the Victory Medal awarded to 1025 Trooper John Jamison. John was a member of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, he died of disease and is buried in the Cairo War Cemetery.
John was from a large family, however, through death at infancy or the consequences of WWI only one of his siblings had a child of their own. Several of John's siblings were close to Frank's family and many years ago they gave him John's medal as there was no member of the Jamison family to pass it to. Based on this I thought it completely appropriate for Frank to retain the medal while I got on with the research.
Thanks to some assistance from a SA genealogy group I'm a member of on Face Book I was able to piece together John's family tree. As I mentioned, one of his sisters did marry and have her own daughter but she had no children of her own. That line of the Jamison family ran out.
I then went back and looked at John's father's siblings. John's father's name was Frank. Through funeral notices of the Adelaide papers I found that Frank was the son of Frank and 'Granny' Jamison. Frank senior was the second husband of 'Granny'. She was actually Elizabeth Sivor and her first husband was Richard Harrowfield. Elizabeth and Richard had a couple of sons, one being James Nash Harrowfield. This is Trooper Jamison's uncle. I followed this line through to the current generation and today I spoke to a member of the Harrowfield family. I've connected them with Frank and I'm sure that in the near future the medal will be returned to the family.
The returned medal tally is now 1438.

Ernest Arthur Horne

From start to finish this search has taken over 6 years. Using the service record of 493 PTE Ernest Arthur Horne, 6th LHR, I could work out snippets of his life. Ernest was 39 when he enlisted for WWI. Prior to this he had served for 8 years with the Natal Mounted Police. He saw active service on Gallipoli and after the withdraw he served in the Sinai and Palestine campaign. The service record also provided the date of his death in 1950. Using this date I could match up his death from the NSW BDM and confirm that his father and mother were Robert and Elizabeth Horne. The NOK details given upon enlistment were his mother, Mrs E Horne at an address in London and his sister, Mrs William MacKinnon of Aberdeen. Then the trail went very cold.
Evey so often I'll revisit a search to see if anything new can be found. I've had a look at he Horne search several times but no new information has ever presented itself. That was until today. Using William MacKinnon as a start point I found a MacKinnon family listed in the Scottish 1901 census living in the same street as appears in the service record. The wife was listed as Alison F MacKinnon. More searching showed that Alison F was in fact Alison Frances Horne, the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth. 10 minutes after starting I had the link I needed.
Using all these new names, I found a family tree on Ancestry that included Alison and Ernest. The tree owner lives in Perth so a little more searching gave me a phone number and I was soon talking to the descendants of James Charles Horne the elder brother of Alison and Ernest.
The first 6 years of his search was pretty difficult, however, the last 60 minutes proved very successful. As can be seen from the photo this Victory Medal has had a hard life. It has been heavily polished as the details of the angels face are not very distinct. The edge is very dented and looks to have been run over with a lawn mower.
Thank you to Deborah N who sent the medal to me in June 2007.
The  returned medal tally is now 1396.

Allan Hamilton

Another medal that came to me as a result of the ACA story was the Victory Medal awarded to 269 Allan Hamilton who served in the 13th Light Horse Regiment. He later transferred to the 13th Field Artillery Brigade. Even though his records doesn't reflect this, it is highly likely that Allan participated in the battles at Lone Pine. (For accessing service records please refer to this tutorial). Allan died in 1949.
I had to revisit this research but I've now located Allan's great niece, Loretta, and will send the medal to her shortly.

Thanks to Peter H who sent me the medal and to Betty Harrison who helped me contact Loretta. The returned medal tally is now 1277.

John Clifford

Over the years we have established several long standing relationships with government or veterans organisations. One which both Bill and I are most proud of is the relationship we have with the RSL at the national and state level. This particular case started with a request from the Victorian RSL state branch. I'll let Bill take up the story of 1385 Trooper John Joseph Clifford, 4th Australian Light Horse.


'John’s British War Medal came to us courtesy of the memorabilia section of the Victorian RSL after it was handed in to them.

John, who served in the 4^th Australian Light Horse, was more than qualified for his role; he stated that his employment prior to enlistment was as a jockey. The attached photo, from the AWM, shows the 5ft 7in, 19 year old Trooper Clifford looking every bit the jockey.

Born in Tipperary, Ireland, the search for a next of kin was initially a daunting task. This is despite John, who died in 1925 from injuries and health problems associated with his service, coming from a large family. However, as I worked through the evidence, it became clear that the only practical option was to follow the line from his sister May Margaret Clifford through her marriage to Tom Guthrie. As a result the Victorian Branch of the RSL will soon forward John’s medal to May’s grandson, Michael.'

Bill was very crisp with his research and was able to locate Michael before the RSL could forward the medal to me. That means no picture of the medal but I think the photo of John from the AWM is a fine substitute. 

The returned medal tally is now 1253.

Picture source:

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DA11834/

Reginald Holmes 1914 - 1915 Star - Australian Light Horse

The 1914/15 Star awarded to 1397 PTE Reginald John James Holmes looks like it has travelled a very long way but really it hasn't. As can be seen in the pictures the medal is well worn, there is also a large dent on the reverse of the crown which has caused the medal to be a little bowed and it doesn't lie flat. This suggests a really hard life.
Holmes was an resident of Austinmer, the medal was dug up from a garden in Austinmer and the medal will be returned to Holmes grand son who also lives in Austinmer. So even though the medal has been out of the family care for some time it hasn't travelled that far.

During WWI Holmes served with the 7th Light Horse Regiment.
This return was possible thanks to the Daily Telegraph newspaper and the In search column.

The returned medal tally is now 1013.

Daniel Morgan

The search for the family of 1619 Driver Daniel Morgan has proved to be very tricky. Bill and I really ran in to some difficulty. Alex cracked the code when he realised that there were name changes due to different marriages and family deaths. In the long run we got there and Alex's clues has put Bill in touch with Morgan's great grand daughter.
As the pictures show this Victory Medal has had a hard life. A ding on the rim makes the '2' look a lot like '7' but Morgan definitely served in 2nd Light Horse Regiment.
Thank you to Douglas who first sent me the medal in 2009.The medal returned tally is now 1004.