John Willie Clarke

I often reflect on the randomness of how medals end up with me when their journey started on the other side of the world.

This WWI British War Medal was awarded to 1918 Private J W Clarke, West Yorkshire Regiment. Based on the unit I knew he was a British soldier. However, it took a while to narrow down this soldier's full name. Using the regimental number of 1918 didn't result in any search success. I do know that as the size of the British Army grew as the war progressed, units changed their numbering systems to allow for the addition of battalions to regimental organisations, death rates and movement of individuals. It is not uncommon to see a soldier with several regimental numbers. 

The primary source to check these regimental numbers and medal entitlement are the British Army medal cards which are held in the British National Archives. These cards are accessed via the NA website on a pay per access basis or through a third party like Ancestry. The search parameters I had to work with was this soldier's initials and surname. It turned out that there were several dozen soldiers with the name J W Clarke so I went through every card individually. These cards were all filled out by hand but I eventually found the correct card with the number 1918 written on it. This card also noted another regimental number which was 240361. From there I was able to determine that J W Clarke was killed in action on 1 March 1918. However, I still didn't know what the initials J W stood for.

It took a bit of reverse engineering research that started with the date of death that finally led me to work out that J W stood for John Willie. That was the clue that led me from Bradford, Yorkshire to Port Lincoln, South Australia. John and his wife Lena had a son in 1916. This was Herbert Clarke. I followed Herbert through immigration, electoral and death records. When Herbert moved to South Australia he obviously had his father's medals with him. That answered the question of how the medal travelled from Bradford to Port Lincoln. The final pieces of information about Herbert came from his headstone.

This led me back to Ancestry and I found Herbert on a tree owned by Deidre S. I fired off messages and emails and yesterday Deidre called to confirm all this research. How the medal left the Clarke family and ended up with Johny who sent me the medal renmains a mystery.

The returned medal tally is now 2649.

Arthur Warren

This story is about the WWI Victory Medal awarded to 200 PTE Arthur Warren and Bill's search for Arthur's family.

Medal searches fall into many categories. One is the ‘interrupted category’.

Such was the search for the next of kin of 200 PTE Arthur WARREN. Originally awarded in the 1920s the story moves forward to late 1990’s when Arthur’s Victory Medal was found in Preston, on a rubbish pile in front of a house that was being renovated. A medal that would probably not been found but consigned to the tip, had it not been in a little silver case that caught the eye of a man out walking his dog.

So we step forward to 2013 and a request from Jerry a veteran of Afghanistan, who had been passed the medal and was requesting help in returning it to Arthur’s family.

This is how I summarised the story to the team of the Australian Surname Group, when I emailed them the result of the search

‘Team, tonight I sent of the following message:

‘Good evening all.

Jerry say hello to Peter the grandson of Arthur Warren.

Peter say hello to Jerry who is really responsible for this email, for it was Jerry and his enquiry to the Jude, the Office Manager at the State Offices of the RSL that started the search.

At that point I am going to say no more. I have however left attached the photos that Jerry forwarded to me.

Regards to you both

 Bill’

Shortly thereafter I received the following from Jerry

‘Thanks Bill

Spoke to Peter and all is well. So dammed happy to get the medal to a relative. Feels so good to get something so precious back to another vets family’

And from Peter:

‘Hi Bill

 I am happy and grateful for all the effort you have put in to trace us.'

In reality I feel I have done little, if thanks are in order then they should go to the team of the Australian Surname Group.
The returned medal tally is now 1563.

Private Michael Baldwin - 1500 medals now returned

This story marks a significant milestone for us. We have now returned 1500 medals. I’m so pleased that the honour goes to Bill.

"When you start to research your family tree, odd things turn up, such was the case of the WW1 medals of 553 Private Michael James Baldwin. Who was he and how did his medals became ensconced in family of Noelene who engaged us to do the research? It was easy to find Michael’s service history, it was tracing his background and that of his family that proved difficult.

While Michael was one of seven children born to Patrick and Mary Baldwin, only one his brothers, Patrick, established a line that could be traced. Like many of his era, Michael was an itinerant worker, it was while he was in South Australia that he passed away. His widow Mary dying some years later.

Complicating the search for a next of kin was the need to disprove any possible link to Noelene’s family. In the end I agreed with her there was no link. So the question remained how had her grandfather came to be in possession of Michael’s medals, had they ever served together or known one another? That question is still open ended, I have no doubt that Noelene will find an answer. But perhaps what is important is that Michael’s medals are now back with his family, his great niece Lynn.

It was while I was talking to Noelene that she mentioned her son-in-laws grandfather, Joseph Horne and the difficulty the family had in tracing his British Army background, could I help. Normally, Glyn and I try to steer clear of becoming involved in family searches, however in this case I felt that I owed Noelene at least the opportunity to give a go. What I did find out in the end was that yes he had served in the British Army, in India before the First World War, with the 17^th Bengal Lancers no less, but unfortunately Joseph’s war records were amongst those destroyed when London was bombed during WW2.

However, I did discover that Joseph had enlisted in the Australian Volunteer Defence Corps during WW2, as a result was eligible for the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945, and the Civilian Service Medal 1939-1945.

Shortly after emailing Noelene the above with regard to Joseph, I forwarded an application for the posthumous issue of medals and clasps to Joseph’s son. Now while he may not have all his grandfather’s medals he does have those of Joe’s last service to his King and Country."

I'll add a few extra details to this story. Michael was a member of the 8th Light Horse Regiment. The regiment is most famous for forming the first 2 waves in the charge at the Nek. This story is tole in the film Gallipoli. This charge occurred on 7 August 1915 but Michael didn't participate as he had been wounded in action on 2 June 1915. He received a bullet wound to his left hand and had a finger amputated. Michael's service record is extensive and has 105 pages. What I find interesting is that on page 104 there are three stamps to show that his medals were returned in 1923.

The returned medal tally is now 1500.