Victor Frederick Patterson

NX121609 Victor Frederick Patterson was from a large extended family. However, he didn't marry and died in 1969. His sister did marry but had no children. His brother Sidney also served in WWI and had three children. I've located one of those children and will be sending the WWII group of four medals back to the family in the near future.
Thanks very much to Jean H for sending these medals to me.
The returned medal tally is now 978.

Caldicott father and son medals

This return is very satisfying. Firstly, because three medals awarded to a father and son will be returned to the family. Secondly, because this family is very aware of their past and have gone to a lot of effort to record their history.
The first medal is the Victory Medal awarded to 7804 William Henry Caldicott. The other medals were awarded to his son NX72585 William Robert Ralph Caldicott.
I put this search together and found the link to the family based on the story written by William Henry Calidcott's grandson Peter and posted by his great grandson Matt.
Thank you very much to Diane for sending these medals to me. 
The returned medal tally is now 974.

James Hubert Scott - Post Update

The post about James Hubert Scott has been updated.

Harold Woodlands - Post Update

The post about Harold Woodlands has been updated.

Harold Thomson

This return isn't a medal but one of those other military items the comes our way every now and again. This WWII Record of Service Book was sent to be by my friend Sandra. It was issued to VX144717 Harold Mervyn Thomson.
With in two minutes of opening the parcel which contained the book, I had found a family tree listing for Harold which provided me his daughter's name. 5 minutes later I was talking to her and making arrangements to send this book back to the family.

James Hubert Scott - Post Update

The post about James Hubert Scott has been updated.

Wilfred Albert Clayton

This is another story of a soldier wanting to see the medals of a veteran returned to the family. Major Neil L is a member of the Army Reserve and has been searching for the family of VX85660 Wilfred Albert Clayton so that Wilfred's medals can be returned. Neil did a power of work but this is a very complicated story.

Bill has found Wilfred's nephew, the son of Wilfred's sister Valma Grace Clayton. Despite three marriages Wilfred did not have any children of his own. Sadly, Wilfred died in a car accident when returning homes from visiting his nephew. It is believed he may have had a heart attack at the wheel. We surmise that the nephew was the son that Wilfred never had. They spent a lot of time together usually fishing.

Great research from Bill and a wonderful gesture from Neil.

The returned medal tally is now 971.

David George Irvin

This is a complicated story so hopefully I can do it justice.
4807 David George Irvin  was a member of the 54th Battalion AIF. The AWM entry says the following about the action this battalion was involved in on 19-20 July 1916:

Moving to France in June 1916, the 54th fought its first major battle on the Western Front at Fromelles, on 19 July. It was a disaster. The 54th was part of the initial assault and suffered casualties equivalent to 65 per cent of its fighting strength. Casualty rates among the rest of the 5th Division were similarly high, but despite these losses it continued to man the front in the Fromelles sector for a further two months.

This battalion has probably become better know today after the discover of a mass unmarked grave at Fromelles. This website provides more details. The Australian Army has gone to great lengths to identify the soldiers buried in the grave and re-inter the remains of these soldiers in a proper war graves cemetery. My friends Tim L and Sandra P are also heavily involved in this project, this is their website.
Irvin is one of the soldiers whose remains have been identified through DNA testing. This link provides the details of the soldiers who have been identified. This link is to the ABC story about the identification of Irvin and this link has a picture and more details about Irvin.
So how did Lost Medals Australia get involved?
The memorial plaque presented to the family of Irvin after WWI recently came up for sale on ebay. A very vigilant Canberra local and now Lost Medals Australia researcher, Tim D, realised who Irvin was and the significance of the plaque. He won the auction and has asked Lost Medals Australia to coordinate the return to Irvin's family who we have also been in touch with.
It is early days yet but I'm hopeful we can arrange for this plaque to be represented to the Irvin family at the upcoming Chief of Army's History Conference.   
Well done to Tim for his wonderful gesture to an Australian soldier.
These pictures are of David Irvin and the plaque.

The returned tally is now 968.

Harold Woodlands

3439 CPL Harold Woodlands served with 1st Pioneer Battalion and was killed in action on 27 April 1918. He is buried at Le Peuplier Military Cemetery.
Harold's British War Medal was sent to me by Gareth who is the secretary of the Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians. This society also sent me the Benar medals. At first I kept hitting brick walls. The Benar search motivated me to revisit my research on this soldier and I came across a family tree which included Harold. I contacted the tree owner who kindly did some more research and put me in contact with Harold's great nephew, John.
Thank you to Gareth for sending me the medal and thank you to Anissa D for connecting me with John.
The medal returned tally is now 967.

Post update 18 Aug 11

Today I met with John and his family and returned the medal to him.

James Hubert Scott

Some searches are very easy and some have proved to be very difficult. This one falls in to the very very easy category.
Today I received the British War Medal awarded to 4712 James Hubert Scott who served in 16th Battalion AIF.  3 minutes after opening the package containing the medal, thanks to the Internet, I was able to identify who was James' grandson and I found his phone number in the White Pages. I've spoken to the family and will be arranging for the medal to be returned in the near future.

Update 16 Aug 10 - Today I spoke to Mrs Catherine Hindson who is James' grand daughter. As can be imagined, Catherine is rather excited about this and I'll be arranging to return the medal to the family very soon. Catherine is the wife of William (Bill) Hindson MC MG. 


Thanks to Tarren for sending this medal to me.
The medal returned tally is now 966.
This medal has had a pretty hard life as the pictures show. The impressing was difficult to read let alone photograph.

Update 28 Aug 10 
This morning I was lucky enough to meet with members of the Scott family and return this medal to them.
Pictured from left are:
Catherine Hindson (nee Scott) who is James', grand daughter
Bill Hindson
Don Scott - James' son
Me
Elsie Scott - Don's wife
James' medal is in front of Don.

John Benar

For several years the Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians website has had a link to my main web site and I have reciprocated with a link from my blog. Air Commodore Mark Lax OAM, CSC is the President of this society and I've know him for many years. A chance meeting with Mark has allowed me to pay back the Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians for their support.
For some time the Society has had the WWI pair of medals awarded to 322 CPL John Benar. Finding John's details proved easy, as did finding his siblings. Then the trail ran very cold.
John had a sister Johanna who died at birth in 1886, another sister Lucy (died 1905), a brother Laurence (died 1938) and another sister Doris. Both Laurence and Doris married but neither had children.
John married Muriel Roberts in 1920. He married a second time to Pearl Barraclough in 1949. Pearl was a widow who had two sons. John had no children of his own.
My search kept running in to brick walls. Of all the Benar family, none had any children so there was no nieces or nephews to look for. I then stumbled on a family tree which gave the names of Pearl's sons and from this I could work out who her grand children were.
I've just spoken to one of Pearl's grand sons who remembers John and has agreed to become the custodian of his medals.
The returned medal tally is now 965.

Christopher Gray

This search was initially a bit confusing as there were two soldiers with the name Christopher Gray and both with the same regimental number who served in the AIF. One was in the Australian Light Horse the other in the Infantry. This particular search was for 143 PTE Christopher Gray who served in 15th Battalion.
Well done to Alex for locating PTE Gray's grandson.
The returned medal tally is now 963.

Large family medal collection

Bill has just completed a wonderful piece of research that has seen 11 medals returned to the family of four soldiers, all related. This is the story of the research:

While working for Legacy, Kel Gulliver was given a box of medals and other miscellaneous items. It was believed the box may have belonged to a Legacy Widow. Unfortunately, there were no records with the items that identified her.

Recently Kel, now retired and having exhausted all other avenues, placed an item in the Veteran Affairs newsletter. At that same time Bill was researching another matter also listed in the same news letter so he contacted Kel to and volunteered our services.

The box in Kel's possession contained four sets of medals:

-one WW1 set awarded to David McLean, who tragically died on a troopship whilst returning to Australia, 

-the second set from WW2 awarded to his son, David H.C. McLean,

-a third set from WW1 awarded to Frank William Gibson, 

-and finally another WWI group to Frank's brother, Percival Thomas Gibson which included Percival's Death Plaque.

Along with all these medals was a letter that the Ships Chaplain wrote to David McLean's widow, a WW1 Returned From Active Service badge, a Widow's and a female relatives badges and school children's Peace Medalet.

It was while tracking the two families that Bill realised they were linked, David H.C. McLean and Frank had married sisters, Amy and Alice. The two couples went their separate ways and neither had any children.

One of the principles we follow is to always try to keep family medals together, thus the obvious choice now was to search for the next of kin of their brother Alfred, one of whose sons was killed in Malaya in 1942, while another, Henry, was a POW on the Burma Thai railway.

From all this Bill tracked down Alfred's grand daughter Kaye and has since rung Kel to give him the news and connect him with Kaye.

When Stan Savige sat down with other WW1 Veterans and formed Legacy to look after the widows and children of deceased servicemen and woman, we would I like to think he had people like Kel Gulliver in mind.

The full collection included:

David McLean WW1 Medals - QSA, 1914-15 Star, BWM and Victory Medal.

DHC McLean  WWII Medals - ASM 1939-1945, 39-45 War Medal, and a LSGCM.

Frank Gibson WW1 Medals - BWM and Victory.

Percival Gibson WW1 Medals - BWM and Victory, also his death plaque (pictured).

1 School children's Medalet.

Returned From Active service badge.

Female relatives badge.

Widow's Badge.

The returned medal tally is now 962.

Henry Thomas Jasprizza

NX128393 Henry Thomas Jasprizza WWII War Medal is another that came to me from the NSW RSL. Bill has located Henry's son and the medal will be returned in the near future.
The medal returned tally is now 950.

The naming on this medal shows heavy impressing on the 'T' and light on the 'H and' 'A'.

Leonard Sydney Taylor

Every now and then a punt pays off.
I've had the Australian Service Medal 39-45 awarded to 36413 Leonard Sydney Taylor for a month or so and had made very little progress. All I could work out was that a L. S. Taylor had married a Bonnie Jean Clark in 1949 in Grafton and I knew that Bonnie died in 2008. There is a L.S. Taylor in the White Pages in Grafton so I took the punt and called the number. Sure enough it is the Mr Taylor I was looking for.
Mr Taylor is a very sprightly 92 and tells me that he believed his medals were taken from his house about seven years ago when he moved out and that they were thrown in to Swan Creek near Grafton.
As can be seen from the pictures, the medal is quite pitted and not in the best condition.
Because Mr Taylor is still alive he is able to apply for official replacements of the medals that he is still missing. I'll provide him with the contact details to do this.
Thank you to Ann for sending these to me. The returned medal tally is now 949.

Duplicate, Replacement, Replica and Copy Medals - Post Update

In recent weeks I've had an increased number of questions asked of me about how to apply for official replacement or where to purchase copy medals. Also, my blog statistics show many more web searches about this topic.
I've update the post on Duplicate, Replacement, Replica and Copy medals to make the photos a bit clearer by highlighting the 'REPLICA' markings. I've also added a photos to show an example of a copy medal.

MacRae family groups

Post updated on 2 Dec 12
I have recently heard from another relative of Donald after he came across this post. As a result I've updated a link to the story of Donald's retirement that had gone dead. I also came across this news paper article about Donald's career which tells the story of him being the last man off Gallipoli and piloting a burning munitions ship out of Newcastle Harbour in 1943.


This return involves two groups of medals awarded to a father and son. It has become a fascinating story which involves one of Newcastle's most prominent citizens from the 1930s through to the 1950s.
For me this story began when I was contacted by an Army officer serving with NORFORCE. He had been asked how to return some medals that had been found in the Northern Territory. What I received is pictured.

The first group is named to Donald MacRae. They include a WWI trio for service with the Royal Navy Reserve, three WWII medals for service with the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve, a Royal NSW Humane Society medal for saving life at sea and a QEII 1953 Coronation Medal. This group is matched with the miniatures which also include a Merchant Marine medal for service with the Merchant Navy from 1907 to 1914. The second group is named to Duncan MacRae for service during WWII.
Donald MacRae
Donald was born in Scotland in 1892 and spent time in the Merchant Navy before WWI when he served in the Royal Navy Reserve (RNR). I believe that Donald was seconded to the RAN and may have been a  Beach Master at Gallipoli during the withdraw. Family history has it that Donald is reputed to have been the last person to leave the shore and returned to the ship with a machine gun but it was taken off him by British officers. These pictures are of his WWI medals.

Donald then began to work as a pilot at Newcastle and was at different time the Harbour Master of Port Kembla, Newcastle and final of Sydney. In 1936 he was awarded the Royal NSW Humane Society medal for rescuing two yachtsmen from Big Ben reef of Newcastle. This link is to the story that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. These pictures are of the obverse and reverse of the medal.

Donald then served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RANVR). This link is to his service record. These pictures are of his WWII medals.

When his appointment was terminated in 1943 he became the Harbour Master of Newcastle and then the Harbour Master of Sydney until he retired in 1956. This picture show his retirement celebrations. As the Harbour Master of Sydney he received the QEII 1953 Coronation Medal.

Donald was married to Mary and he died in 1963. The only son I could find a mention of was Duncan.
Duncan George Fletcher MacRae.
Duncan joined the RAAF early in the war and after aircrew training was commissioned as a Flying Officer. This is his full service record. Sadly, Duncan was killed when his Spitfire crashed in to the North Sea during a training flight. This link provides details of the accident (page 290). These pictures are of Duncan's WWII medals including the Air Crew Europe Star.

I then ran in to a brick wall. I knew that all clues pointed to Newcastle so I took a punt and asked the ABC in Newcastle to run the story. Paul Bevan was very generous and gave me 20 minutes on air to tell my story and what I knew about the MacRae family. No sooner had I got home when Ben (Paul's producer) called to say a lady who knew the MacRae family had called in and I was put in contact with Donald's grandson David.
What I now know is that Donald had two other children, Donald and Margaret. It would appear that the medals passed to Donald junior's son who lived in the NT and were left behind when he died suddenly about two years ago.
I'll be returning these medals to Donald's granddaughter, MaryAnne. Donald's grandson, David, told me of a much loved grandfather who was a gentleman and involved in many more brave acts than he was recognised for.
The returned medal tally is now 948.

Alexander Boneham

2306 Alexander Gordon Boneham served with 45th Battalion AIF and saw active service in France. These links are to the AWM and wiki pages about this battalion. There is very little information about Boneham and his life after the war. The only web entry I could find about him was for a picture of a plaque placed by his RSL Sub-Branch at Bogan Gate NSW.
This medal will go to Alexander's great nephew Kevin whose wife, Bernadette, did a load of follow up research for me. Thanks to Rob for sending this medal to me.
The returned medal tally is now 934.

Duplicate, Replacement and Replica Medals - Post Update

I've updated the post on duplicate, replacement and replica medals to include some photos of examples of medals marked 'D' for duplicate and to explain some recent policy changes for applying for replacement medals.

Thomas Anglesey

A bit of luck and a calculated guess helped solve this search. The WA RSL sent me the WWII group of five medals awarded to WX9592 Thomas Anglesey but I kept running in to dead ends. There are only four soldiers with this surname on the WWII nominal roll so I followed a hunch that some might be related.
To my surprise I found that Thomas' service record had been digitised and was on the National Archives web site, here. This gave me his next of kin name and address. I noticed that the records to the other soldiers with the same surname were also digitised so I went through them and worked out that WX4158 David James Anglesey was Thomas' brother. From all this I was pretty sure that Thomas never married. However, I knew that David did marry.
I found David's funeral notice at this link which gave me his son's name, being Sam. I then took a punt based on names and geographic locations and ended up speaking to Sam's son. So the person I found is Thomas' great nephew.
The returned medal tally is now 933.

Colin Ellis

I've had some medals come to me is a very ordinary condition but this pair is probably the worst I've seen. This contemporary pair of the Australian Service Medal and the Defence Force Service Medal were stolen from CPO Ellis and seem to have spent a lot of time in the elements to end up looking like they do.
The returned medal tally is now 928.

Cyril Gersback

The search for the family of NX114985 Cyril Gersback has been a difficult one. I received the medals in 2006 and quickly found his date of birth and death but not much else. In different records his name is spelt a variety of ways which made the whole search very frustrating.
On a whim I searched for Cyril Gersbach and got a hit on the 2/15th Battalion news letter with the following report from Paul Bacon:
'Brett Lovett who is my nephew took part in his first Anzac Day march this year, and we were able to march
together in the ranks of Descendants WW2 and Post WW2. Brett marched for his great uncle Cyril Gersbach
who served in the 2/1st Militia battalion in New Guinea. Cyril is one my uncles and brother to Jack Gersbach
who served in the 2/15th.'
Soon after reading this I spoke to Paul and have arranged to return his uncle's medals to him in the near future.
This link is to company photo with Cyril.
Thanks to Ron of Revesby for sending these medals to me. The returned medal tally is now 926.

George Foster

This 1914-15 Star was awarded to 164 George Foster who served with the 2nd Battalion AIF. This unit was raised in late August 1914. George enlisted on which reflects his very low regimental number.
This search was finalised by Morris who tacked down the family in England.
The returned medal tally is now 922.