Bede Sullivan

I received the WWII War Medal and Defence Medal awarded to NX27358 Bede Joseph Sullivan from Helen D who tells me the medals were found amongst the possession of a deceased relative.
Bede married but had no children. His sister married but she also had no children. Their brother Arthur didn't marry.
I then had to turn to the family of Bede's father William. He was from a large family and I found a trail through William's sister, Catherine. She married William Brennan and it is their grandson, Don who, thanks to another family member, I've been in touch with. Don tells me that he remembers the Sullivan family living in the same NSW regional town as him.
While doing this research I found that one of Bede's cousins was William Gregory Brennan died of wounds he received at Gallipoli. This is his obituary.
Thanks to Helen for sending me the medals and to Jezella for connecting me with Don.
The returned medal tally is now 2366.

Bill Lloyd

While the story behind this medal is relatively simple it is the coincidences that have occurred to get it back to the family which are interesting.
The War Medal awarded to VX118640 Ernest William (Bill) Lloyd was another of those sent to me bu Ted Ayres from York, Western Australia. Bill was from Melbourne and lived there all his life so how the medal ended up in a small WA farming community is a mystery.
In my search for Bill I found a picture of his headstone and entries in the electoral rolls but not much else. I revisited this search yesterday, having let it rest since May 2015. To my surprise I found Bill on the Ancestry tree of Dr Alan Arnold. Alan is Bill's nephew. I was surprised even more to discover that Alan lives in Canberra and listed in the White Pages. I called Alan and found that he lives only a short distance from me. Another coincidence is that Alan lectured at ADFA for several years and many of my contemporaries were students there at the same time.
This morning I called past Alan's house and dropped Bill's medal off.
The returned medal tally is now 1995.

Reginald Rose

Every now and then something about a medal surprises me. This WWII War Medal was awarded to 69104 Reginald Herbert Rose who served with the RAAF. The difference with this medal is that the first three numbers are at the 9 o'clock position are visible although they seem to be either soft struck or misaligned. The correct naming is from 7 o'clock thru to 4 o'clock. I suspect that the person who was doing the naming realised that he had started in the wrong position, realigned the medal and started again.
Thanks to Sandra who sent me the medal in 2013. I quickly worked out Reginald's details and from his death notice I knew the names of his daughters. However, without knowing their married names I hit a brick wall. Anne recently had a fresh look at this case for me and located Beverly, one of Reginald's daughters, who I spoke to this afternoon. Beverly lives here in Canberra so I'll arrange to drop the medal off to her in the near future.
Th returned medal tally is now 1871.

James Goodwin

If only all searches were this easy.
Late last week I received the WWII War Medal awarded to 41143 FSGT James Lee Goodwin from my friend Sandra. Luckily, James' 97 page RAAF service record is available on line. While there were some clues I could use, I also found James on a family tree on Ancestry.com.au. I sent off a message to the tree owner and shortly after received a reply. To my very pleasant surprise Elizabeth was able to connect me with James' daughter, Pat. Over night I had an email from Pat and I can now return the medal.
Thank you very much to both Sandra and Elizabeth. The returned medal tally is now1497.

 James and Pat (reproduced with kind permission from Elizabeth)

Francis Connolly

I received the WWII War Medal awarded to SX31933 Francis Patrick Connolly from Michael P in May 2014. Fortunately, Francis is included in several family trees on Ancestry.com. From this I was able to determine a relative of Francis and will soon return the medal to the family.
The returned medal tally is now 1496.

Douglas Thomson

This is a very short post, a little like the amount of research that when in to it.
Last week I received the WWII War Medal awarded to 254982 Douglas Yule Thomson from Garry J. As soon as I saw the hand engraved naming I know it was a RAAF issue.
Yesterday I got down to doing some research and within seconds of starting I had, via Ancestry.com.au, a lead on Donald's family. Within a minute I had sent a message to the tree owner and today I received a response from Donald's son David. I'll arrange to send him the medal in the near future.
Thanks go to Garry. The returned medal tally is now 1427.
The photo shows hand engraving which is typical for RAAF WWII medals.

David Frederick Hart

This search commenced in October 2013 when the WWII War Medal awarded to S42465 Dave Frederick Hart was sent to me via my friend Sandra. Hart was from South Australia and as most family history researchers know, the available records from SA are a little thin compared to other states. I did find that Hart had three children but other than their first names I had no other information.
I recently found mention of Hart on an Ancestry family tree from Chris C. Chris had contacted a distant relative and was able to provide me the married names and spouse's names of all Hart's children. Armed with the initial of Hart's son and his wife I found a similar entry in the White Pages so I took a punt and gave the number a call. Sure enough I had the right family.
Thanks go to Sandra and Chris. The medal will be on its way to David Hart's son in the near future.
The returned medal tally is now 1417.

Dr T Ray Bradley

This is one search where time didn't quite work in my favour.
I received the WWII War Medal awarded to 449645 Thomas Ray Bradley in March 2012. Using service records and the electoral rolls I was able to follow Bradley and his family up until 1980. One firm piece of information I did find was that he went by the name T. Ray Bradley and was a doctor.
There is a significant amount of information available about Dr Bradley on the Internet mainly to do with his research in to the treatment of cancer. He was also made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990. What I wasn't able to find was any contact details. Appeals to the research institutes that provide prizes in Dr Bradley's name yielded no additional information.
Yesterday I revisited this search and I immediately got a hit on Dr Bradley's name, unfortunately it was his obituary. Dr Bradley died in August 2013.
Thanks to Dr Ray Marginson, the obituary author, and Dr Juliet Flesch, I was able to contact Dr Bradley's daughter, Julie. Thanks also goes to Andrew Cairns who originally sent me the medal. This concludes the research of all the medals that Andrew has forwarded to me.
The returned medal tally is now 1402.

Leslie Lewry

6010481 Leslie Lewry saw service in the British Army during WWII for which he was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medals and the War Medal. He then served in Palestine as part of the British involvement following WWII. For this Leslie was awarded the General Service Medal. Luckly this medal is named so I was able to start searching for him.
In the 1950s Leslie and his wife Elvery moved to Sydney and eventually settled in Perth. Using the electoral rolls and cemetery records I was able to gain a solid picture of their life in Australia. Unfortunately, they did not have any children.
By going backwards through the British records I established that Leslie had two brothers, Richard and David. It is through David's family that I have locate a family member to return theses medals to. Having focused most of my search in the UK I find that I'll end up sending these medals to Brisbane.
Thanks go to Pam McG who sent me the medals.
This return takes us past a significant milestone. The returned medal tally is now 1401.

Roy Morgan

In recent posts I have spoken about how wonderful it has been to assist the Victorian Police Force on several occasions. This time I have the pleasure of helping out the Western Australian Police Force.
Last week I received an email from Peter W of the Perth Police Station. He had a WWII War Medal and a WWII 60th anniversary commemorative coin  and requested that I have a search for the family.
The medal, awarded to WX41637 Roy Frederick William Morgan, arrived in today's post. This afternoon I had a brief look at Roy's entries in the electoral rolls. This brief look turned in to the whole story unravelling at the rapid rate. I quickly established Roy died in 2002 and that his wife's name was Elsie. A check of the White Pages provided a phone number of a person with the same initials living around the corner from the address listed in the 1980 electoral roll. Always keen to take a punt on leads like this I rang the number and within 5 minutes of deciding to have a brief look at Roy's trail I was speaking to Elsie (sorry Bill).
Elsie tells me that she had been burgled in the past and lost many personal items and money. She wasn't worried about the money but she and her daughters were very upset at the loss of Roy's medals. Now one can be retuned.
The returned medal tally is now 1252.

Hubert Wallace

N109749 Hubert Hope Wallace was a member of the militia during WWII rather than the 2nd AIF. I suspect that this was due to Hubert's age. For his serivce he would have been awarded the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45. It is the War Medal that I'll soon be returning.
This medal we sent to me by my friend Sandra. Within two minutes of opening the parcel I located Hubert on an Ancestry family tree. 10 minutes later I was in contact with Hubert's grand daughter.
The returned medal tally is now 1248.

Marcus Towler

This return is of a WWI dog tag. Unlike the dog tags of today which are made of metal, the WWI version were made of a fibreboard materiel similar to cardboard. As a result they deteriorated very quickly, especially when wet.
This particular dog tag was issued to Captain Towler of the Cyclist Battalion. Not much information to go on. By searching the UK Medal Index Cards (MIC) there was only one person who fit the bill. The MIC are sometimes disappointing due to the lack of information on them but in this case it proved to be a gold mine. From the MIC I found Towler's full name was Marcus Albert and he was later promoted to the rank of Major. His full medal entitlement was the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The MIC even notes that he had to apply for his 1914-15 Star and confirmation of the award. To my even greater surprise I found a second MIC stating that Marcus was Mentioned in Despatches.
Based on the information from the MIC it didn't take me long to locate Marcus on the Australian electoral rolls. By following him over many years I also was able to establish the names of his children.
What confused me a little was that Marcus was on the 1914 electoral roll but enlisted in the British Army in 1915. It wasn't unheard of for men who were born in England to return there after emigrating to enlist. However, the 1914 entry did make me question my research logic. I have since spoken to Marcus' family and I know more of his story.
Marcus emigrated to Australia around 1911 and settled in Melbourne. He spent a short amount of time in WA ring barking trees for land clearing but succumbed to barcoo rot. At the outbreak of WWI Marcus return to England and was commissioned in to the Army Cycle Corps. After WWI Marcus returned to Australia and became a successful business man working for a Japanese company. Every this went well until the outbreak of WWII and Marcus found himself without a job. He was then appointed as a Captain in the 2nd AIF as a recruiting officer. In addition to his WWI medals Marcus would also have been awarded the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45.
The dog tag was sent to me by my friend Sandra. All up the search took about 20 minutes and I learnt some new things on the way, a very satisfying result.

Cornelius Haskell

This is one of those searches which I wished happened more often. This afternoon I had a case referred to my by the WA RSL. The WWII War Medal awarded to F3622 Cornelius Lawrence Haskell (known as Laurie) had been found in a Perth suburban garden. A quick check of the electoral rolls showed that Mr Haskell had lived very close to where the medal was found. The electoral roll also gave me the name of Mr Haskill's son. A quick check of the White Pages provided me with the phone number of Mr Haskill's son and within three minutes of receiving the initial request for help I was talking to a member of the Haskell family (sorry Bill).
A broader check of Mr Haskell's service shows that he was Mentioned in Despatches during his service with the RAN.
Thank you to Sean M who found the medal and wanted to see it back with the family. The returned medal tally is now 1224. 

As can be seen in the photo this medal must have been buried for many years to now be in this condition.

Thomas Hutchinson

2146A Thomas Hutchinson was initially allocated to 5th Battalion AIF and later moved to 46th Battalion. During his service he was wounded in action twice and went AWOL on two occasions. After discharge Thomas worked as a miner around the Victorian gold fields.
There is very little information about him other than what I could find in the electoral rolls. The next time Thomas appeared in the records was during WWII when he served in a garrison battalion. Thomas did not marry so Bill and I focused our research on his wider family. I have recently been in touch with Jenny, the Great Grand Daughter of Thomas' uncle and I'll soon be sending the medal to her.
For his service in WWI Thomas was awarded the usual trio of the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal. For his service during WWII in a garrison battalion he would have been awarded two more medals, the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45. Where the rest of Thomas' medals are is anyone's guess.
Thank you to Mike R of Bendigo who sent Thomas' BWM to me. The returned medal tally is now 1214.

George Pittman

WX3719 George Alfred Pittman was born in Ballancourt, France before his family settled in Western Australia. When George enlisted his profession is listed as school teacher and reference is made to in his service record. For his service in the Pacific George was Mentioned in Despatches.
Pictured are George's War Medal, Defence Medal and the ASM-1939-45. Missing are the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star and the Pacific Star which George would also have received.
Thank you very much to Peter L who sent these medals to me last week and also to my friend MJ who was the initial go between.
These medals will soon be returned to George's daughter. The returned medal tally is now 1208.

Post update 11 Dec 12
I recently met George's daughter Sue so that I could return these medals personally. We spent a wonderful hour chatting about George and his exploits as a linguist during WWII. This photo is of Sue and I - and George - taken by Sue's husband Steve. Sue tells me that George's remaining medals are still with the family so the entire group will be reunited.

Mildred Evaline Vaughan

This is a fascinating story which I'll let Bill tell. 

'The Vaughan story began when I was approached by the President of a Melbourne RSL Sub-Branch. The Club had been given a collection of medals, the result of a collector deciding to pursue another hobby. The President, while willing to accept the medals, felt that there should an examination into how the medals came to be sold in the first, and so the story began.

Invariably when we ring a next of kin of the recipient of the medals we hold, and after having explained who and what we are doing, we are most often met with the comments "Dad's medals. They have been missing for years. Where did you find them?"

It is not unusual that as we pass through our research, we swing backwards and forwards, where we sometimes think we have taken not the expected two steps back, but rather we are back again at the beginning of our search. Often trying to work out how we got it wrong by proceeding down one path, when you probably should have ignored it altogether.

But never, until I started the search for the family of VF510178 Mildred Evaline Vaughan had I been met when calling with the words "What medals? Mum didn't have medals. Dad yes, but Mum no". Then the second question; "Where did you get them? The answer to that question is usually short, but the answer to; "How did you find me?" is the one that takes up the time.

So then came the first part of the answer explanation that Mildred had served during WW2 in the Army, and as such she was eligible for the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945.

 The second part was a bit more complicated. Several years ago a medal collector tiring of collecting medals and having lost the enthusiasm for his hobby faced with the problems associated with selling his collection, gave them to a Melbourne RSL. An incoming President asked me if it would be possible to do an audit of the medals, in particular their background and where had they come from.

Perhaps the most pleasing part of the search was for it to end with a successful conclusion. A search that was began in March 2010 was completed this week when Mildred's medals were presented to her daughter Jane.

Mildred's family had a tradition of Military Service, her father Lieutenant Percy William Vaughan, served with the 1st Australian Service Squadron in South Africa during the Boer War from 1900 to 1901. During WW1 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the defence of the Newcastle Port.

Source:  http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/A05152

Lieutenant Percy William Vaughan 

Originally the Manager of City Bank, Braidwood, NSW, Percy received 5 bars to his Queen's South Africa Medal and was Mentioned in Despatches.

His son Kenneth Montague Vaughan served as a Captain during WW2.

His other daughter, Phyllis, married a Royal Naval Commander.

So it was in this tradition that Mildred joined the Army during WW2.

As for the search itself, well it took the assistance of the team at the Australian Surname Group and many many hours in the State library of Victoria, carefully trolling over old newspapers and electoral rolls. I followed the progress from Melbourne to Perth where Mildred met and married William Hudson in 1946. Mildred returned to Melbourne to live after the death of her husband. 

But the question does remain where have the medals been all this time? And who had them court mounted. As I explained to Jane, I don't know and I guess we probably never will, but what is more important is that the medals are home with Mildred's family.'

The returned medal tally is now 1202.

Melvyn Hinds - A mile stone return

There is not a lot I can tell you about NX172535 Melvyn Leonard William Hinds. His WWII group of four medals was initially sent to the NSW RSL by Geraldine of the Periwinkle Guest House and the the RSL forwarded them to me.
Melvyn's death notice gave me the names of his wife and children and using this information Bill was able to track down Mrs Hinds. The medals will be returned to her shortly,
This return is a significant mile stone for Lost Medals Australia as we have now returned 1200 medal.

This is how the medals arrived. The ASM and the War medal are mounted the wrong way around.

 

William Best Merchant Navy

I received the WWII British War medal awarded to William Best in March and ran into immediate brick walls. Yesterday, I decided to have a close look at Best to see what I could come up with and today the full story unravelled in my lap.
There is only one person with the surname Best who served in the MN and the only additional clue was that he received a British Empire Medal (Civil Division). That led me down a very interesting path. William was from Clydebank in Scotland and from an early age joined the merchant navy. His family moved to South Australia around 1925.
The first piece of information about the BEM was this entry from the London Gazette (click on the image for a larger view).

Source - London Gazette

 I then found the story of the MV Melbourne Star which was the vessel that William was on when he was attacked. This link has great details about the sinking. This is a picture of Bill in hospital after he was rescued and the story about his ordeal from the Adelaide Advertiser (click on the image for a larger view).

Photo source - http://www.melbournestar.co.uk/Survivors.html  courtesy Julia Nunn

Source - Trove

This story, also from the Adelaide Advertiser, gives much more detail about Bill's survival (click on the image for a larger view).

Source - Trove

This card is from the AWM collection showing Bill's award of the BEM. What it gave me was his address and from there I could move forward with the research (click on the image for a larger view).

Source AWM collection

Unfortunately, the South Australian records are the least accessible of all Australian states so Bill and I asked the Australian Surname Group to have a look at this for us. Very quickly we had the names of Bill's siblings and their children. Based on this information I was able to then put together a family tree. One name was easy to research and as it turns out he was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy for many years. Through the electoral rolls I followed him through to 1980, including when he lived at an address about 400 m from where I lived in 1977. Once I had a name the rest was pretty easy and this afternoon I spoke to Bill's nephew, Ken.
Ken tells me that Bill married late in life but didn't have any children of his own. Even though Bill's medals were supposed to go to Ken this didn't occur but now the War Medal will be returned.

Thanks to Andrew C for sending the medal to me originally. The returned medal tally is now 1192.

Ronald Brookman

Ronald Charles Brookman was from Melbourne and in 1941, at age 23, he enlisted in the 5th Battalion of the Victorian Scottish Regiment as V55082 PTE Brookman. However, later in 1941 he transferred to the RAAF and served as 410114 Flight Sergeant Brookman.
Ron was a member of 463 Squadron of Bomber Command and was a navigator on Lancaster aircraft. On 26 September 1944 while on a bombing mission over France, Ron's plane came down. This is the AWM record of the flight. Ron and the rest of the crew are buried at Wissant Communal Cemetery near Pas De Calais. This link shows the panel at the AWM where Ron is listed.
Ron's family placed several notices in the news paper after his death and this article also appeared.

Source: The Argus (Melbourne, Vic), Saturday 19 January 1946, page 9 

Ron's WWII War Medal came to me from the NSW RSL. It had originally been found around Tea Gardens. Using electoral rolls I established that Ron's brother Harold lived in that area for several years and died in Port Macquarie in 2009. Harold also served during WWII. Harold and Ron had two sisters, Gwen and Edna. It didn't take long to follow both Gwen and Edna through the electoral rolls up until 1980. Edna was married to another WWII veteran, Donald Miller, who was awarded a Mention in Dispatches. This is the AWM document about the award.
Following a hunch I had a look in the White Pages in the general area I knew that Edna was living in 1980 and to my surprise I found her listed at the same address. So 30 minutes after the medal arriving in today's post I was talking to Ron's sister.
When looking through the memorial notices for Ron one of the last I came across was from Ron's fiancée, Clare. After Ron was killed, Edna stayed in touch with Clare for many years. Clare subsequently married and had four children.
The returned medal tally is now 1188.

N.T. Aisbett - WWII War Medal

In the previous post I mentioned that I had recently received several items from the NSW RSL. One of these was a WWII War Medal. This particular medal was awarded to NX174153 Noel Travers Aisbett. I found Mr Aisbett easily enough in the NSW electoral rolls and noticed that he was at the same address for many years. Following a hunch I looked up Mr Aisbett in the White Pages and sure enough there he was still at the same address.
This morning I had a lovely chat with Noel. He tells me that he lost his medal about a year ago when is fell out of a bag. This bag also contained his other four WWII medals. So not only is this medal going to be returned to the vetern it will be reunited with the rest of his medal group.
The returned medal tally is now 1178.