Neil 'Fox' Mason

Fans of the film The Dish are going to enjoy this story.

I received an Australian Defence Medal awarded to Neil Francis Mason, know as Fox, from Col W of the Isis RSL sub-branch. Fox was awarded this medal for fulfilling his National Service obligation but it is his civilian career which is far more fascinating and will be familiar to many.

Fox was a member of the CSIRO staff at the Parkes radio telescope. He was part of the team during the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Specifically, 'Present in the control room were the NASA personnel, John Bolton, Dr Taffy Bowen, the PMG senior technical officer, Brian Coote, and Neil 'Fox' Mason, who was the driver given the responsibility to operate the dish at this historic moment.'

A more detailed description of the events of that day are at this link:

On Eagle's Wings: The Story of the Parkes Apollo 11 Support

This link is the ABC news story about the 40th anniversary of the landing.

Fond memories of 'the dish' for moon-landing veterans - ABC News

Fox was married to Ethel (Winkie) Phillips. He died in 2017 and is buried in the Parkes cemetery.

I have been in contact with Lynne from the Mason family and will be sending her Fox's medal in the near future. I was assisted in contacting Lynne through her cousin Barry.

The returned medal tally is now 3031.

WWI KIA - John (Jack) Alfrey Porter

Note: there are some issues with the links to Trove and other research resources. Redirections occur, but the page will open.

This pair of WWI medals are as well travelled as the solider who was awarded them. Sadly, the solider did not make his journey home as he was killed in action on 24 April 2017.

The Porter family was very prominent in colonial Australia. John Alfrey Porter was one of the early administrators of both New South Wales and Victoria. The solider whose medals are being returned is also named John Alfrey Porter. This is two articles about the grandfather. This link is to his obituary:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241180009?searchTerm=%22John%20Alfrey%20Porter%22

This link details the John's will which shows how well off the family was.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/202700572?searchTerm=%22John%20Alfrey%20Porter%22

Unfortunately, the family suffered a scandal. While the whole story is interesting the section about the Porters is in the left hand column.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201744494?searchTerm=%22John%20Alfrey%20Porter%22

There is another interesting story related to this family through the descendants of Jack Porter's sister Mary. Mary's son was John Villars, a philanthropist who established the John Villar's Trust for the benefit of Queensland communities. John's bio can be found at this link:

https://jvtrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/John-Villiers-Biography.pdf

Now to 29952 PTE 20052 PTE John Alfrey Porter. Know as Jack, PTE Porter served in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. This was a regiment of the British Army. Unfortunately, the UK records are not aa complete as those for the first AIF so I don't has much in the was of service details of Jack. The circumstances of him enlisting in a British Army regiment can only be speculated on. Usually this occurred when the individual was in the Britan rather then in Australia at the out break of war. What is known is that Jack was killed in action on 24 April 1917 at Monchy-le- Preux, France. He is commemorated at the Arras Memorial.

Private John Alfrey Porter | War Casualty Details 1604369 | CWGC

His mother published the following death notice in May 1917.

Jack's medals were sent to me by Jane C. They have been well looked after over the years. I have been in touch with a descendant of Jack's sister Ellen. This is Linden, who tells me that Ellen 'was close to her brother and was very affected by this death'. 

Thank you to Jane who sent me the medals. The returned medal tally is now 3030.

Discharge certificate - WWII

 Yesterday I received a message from Luke about a WWII discharge certificate he had come across and was seeking to return it to the family. The solider was V72829 PTE Percival Pinne.

It was easy to follow Percival through the public records due to a reasonably uncommon surname. What was more difficult was working out the name of the current generation. Percival's headstone gives the name of his daughter, Jillian, and the Victorian BDM records confirmed her married name was Brown. This when things got a bit complicated having moved the search to a more common surname. Jillian and her husband Roger has a daughter named Riki which became the key to the rest of the search. Roger's online obituary page credits some phots to Riki and her married name is included. 

Social media proved to be the best way to search for Riki and within 30 minutes of commencing, I was explaining to Riki all about this search and connecting her with Luke. 

They are now making arrangements about how best to hand this certificate over which may even involve them meeting in the near future.

Thomas Carseldine

This return is the second lot of medals sent to me recently by Charlie S. These are the Pacific Star and Australian Service Medal 1939-45 awarded to QX13582 Thomas Carseldine. Thomas was also awarded 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal.

Thomas was 39 years old when he enlisted and saw a lot of overseas service as a gunner in the 1st Anti Tank Regiment. (I've corrected Thomas' age. I should have paid better attention to the service record. He was 39 not 59)

 

Thomas was single and died in 1975. He was from a large family and it is though his brother Frank, that I've recently contacted the current generation.

Thanks to Charlie who sent me these as well as the Stoker medals. The returned medal tally is now 3027.

RAAF WWII pair - Arthur Stoker

439794 Leading Aircraftsman Arthur Frederick William Stoker was an 18 year old from Ballina, NSW when he enlisted in the RAAF on 31 Jul 43. I find it interesting that his enlistment papers show his civilian trade as 'Confectionary Assistant', but later documents indicate he was trained as a radio technician. His employer was the HMV Radio Company. 

When he applied for discharge in 1946, he stated his father was an electrical contractor and radio salesman in Ballina and Arthur was required to go back to work in the family business.

Arthur's full medals entitlement is the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-45 and are pictured below 

Thanks to Charlie S who sent these medal to me. I've recently been in contact with Arthur's grand daughter and I'll send her the medal tomorrow as it is her birthday.

The returned medal tally is now 3025.

R McI Rogers

Two of the medals awarded to NX167650 Robert McIlveen Rogers were sent to me in 2014 by the Ipswich RSL. I thought the unusual middle name might make the search straight forward but I was wrong. All public information abruptly stopped in 1980 which put a pause on the research

As part of my recent review of some old searches I came across a family tree which included Robert. This afternoon, in response to my message via Ancestry.com, I received a call from Robert's daughter. This is Margaret, who has kindly shared a photo of Robert wearing his full medal entitlement.

We have come to the conclusion that these two medal were with another family member before being given to the RSL and then forwarded on to me. 

I find it interesting that Robert's middle name is depicted as McI on the medal.

The retuned medal tally is now 3023. 

William Henry Lee - WWI pair

Another search I revisited recently has now been successful following the additional of some family details added to Ancestry.com.

I was first contacted on 11 May 2018 by James F who had come across two WWI medals during the clean up of a deceased estate. This was in Dudley, Newcastle, NSW. The medals were awarded to 7015 William Henry Lee. William's service record is pretty straight forward, except for one document which gives the details of an English lady he married in Bedford, UK, in 1917. This was Mabel May Bettles. After WWI the settled in Newcastle. 

It appears that some time around 1931, William and Mable divorced. He then married Julia in 1935. Julia was also divorced and he several children from his previous marriage.

William died in 1944 and it is his death notice which gave me the first series of clues about his decendants.

 William's grave is rather simple.

After revisiting this search almost 8 years to the day that James originally contacted me, I was able to narrow down the family I was looking for thanks to new information being posted online. William's medals, which look to have had a hard life, will soon be reunited with other medals from his broader family.

The returned medal tally is now 3021. 

 

Bert Potter's WWII medals

The search for the family of S20848 Bert Potter started when I received a message from Wayne G following a referral from RSL Care SA. Wayne had purchased these medal and was kindly trying to return them to Bert's family. 

As I've mentioned many time, South Australia has not released records which help searches like this. Electoral rolls are a usual start point when trying to confirm residential locations and the names of others in that house hold. As a result is took a bit of time to work out that Bert did not marry. Luckly. a few Ancestry tress included his wider family so I was able to draw some tentative threads to the current generation. Based simply on a link to a geographic location, I contacted a lady who indeed is a member of the Potter family and from there connected her with Wayne to coordinate the return of the Bert's medals. 

The returned medal tally is now 3019.

WWI trio - Albert Hampstead

I've worked with Sabina previously on research for lost medals. She recently contacted me again about the WWI trip awarded to 3332 Albert William Hampstead.

It didn't take me long to identify Albert's family tree and work out the name of the current generation. Through a combination of information from Ancesrty.com and social media Sabina and I narrowed down the contact details of a descendant of Albert. Sabina contacted that person and as it turns out, Albert's 96 year old daughter is still alive. 

This was a wonderful collaboration to see three more medals returned to the family.

The returned medal tally is now 3014.

3rd Light Horse Regiment KIA

I have a great contact through the Army Museum network who is also involved in the Launceston RSL. This is Pete W and we recently had a discussion about a number of medals which needed to be researched and returned to the families. Pete sent me these medals recently and I hope to publish a number of stories in the near future about the soldiers and their medals.

The first medal from this collection to be returned was awarded to 1396 PTE Wilfred Smith. Wilfred was a member of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment. He was 31 years old when he enlisted on 27 July 1915. Wilfred was married to Kathleen and they had a baby daughter, Ida Gloria. 

After joining his regiment in early 1916, Wilfred fought in the Battle of Romani. He was killed in action on 4 August 1916. Even though his service record states he was buried in the field and the burial was officiated by a chaplain, he is recorded as having no know grave. Wilfred is commemorated on the Jerusalem War Memorial.

I found Wilfred's details on an Ancestry family tree which is owned by his great grandson. This is Keith who also lives in Tasmania. I'll send him Wilfred's British War Medal in the near future.

The returned medal tally is now 3011.

Update: 15 May 26

Thank you to Keith who has provided this picture of Wilfred.

Laurie Cartwright and a direct family connection to these WWII medals

An advantage of not working full time now is that I can revisit some of the longer term research tasks I have. This afternoon I pulled out the index card for the medals awarded to NX9218 Laurence Cartwright not thinking I would have much success. 

I received Laurie's WWII group of five in 2009 from the Directorate of Honours and Awards after they were handed. At the time Laurie's service record had not been digitised on the NAA and there was limited information on Ancestry. Today's review threw up two pieces of information which were the key to contacting Laurie's nephew.

Sometimes, his first name is spelt Lawrence and he had a middle name of Culshaw which only appears once in Australin records. Laurie was born in New Zealand in 1913. He moved to Sydney prior to the outbreak of WWII and was one of the early enlistees as can be seen by his low service number.

After the war, Laurie and his wife, Winifred lived at several address in the Sydney North Shore. Once I worked out his name variations, I came across an Ancestry family tree which it turns out, belongs to Laurie's nephew. This is Chris from New Zealand and the son of Laurie's sister. 

Chris has provided me some great information and family anecdotes. Chris met Laurie and Win when they visited New Zealand in the 1950s. The description Chris gives is that Laurie lived a carefree lifestyle including living for a time on a motor launce on the Hawksbury River.

Chris and his family lived for a while in Sydney and got to now Laurie and Win better. However, tragedy struck when Laurie was killed in 1968/9 while riding his scooter. Chris tells me that even though he retuned to New Zealand in 1973, he remained close to Win until her death in 1990.

It is becoming less common for a family member I contact to have a direct link to WWII veterans. These medals will be sent to Chris in the near future with a whole lot of new information about his uncle once I can access his service record. 

The returned medal tally is now 3010.

T/CPL Norman George Robert

As the popularity of Anzac Day continues to grow I continue to be heartened by the interest shown in our military history and for our veterans. At this time of year I receive an upturn in enquires about medals that have been lost or other which have been held be families with no known connection to the veteran. Last night I received a referral via a friend to an online question about returning three WWII medals.

Following a series of messages, Patrick told me he had the medal awarded to SX16643 Norman George Robert. The medals had previously been in the possession of another family member but why will remain a mystery.

This picture of Norman is from his WWII service record

Norman was from South Australia which, as I've mentioned previously, is a difficult state to do family research based the lack availability of public records. There was no evidence that Norman and his wife, Evelyn had children but beyond a 1982 death date for Norman I couldn't find much else. However, I found Norman's parents included on an Ancestry family tree. Within a couple of hours of sending the tree owner a message I was talking to Norman's niece. This is Jane and shortly, I'll connect her with Patrick so that the medals can be back with Norman's family.

The returned medal tally is now 3005.

LAC Keith Crowne

This return was a real community effort. A fortnight ago, Kara posted on social media, a picture of a group of four WWII medals she was seeking to return. Several people shared the post with me or provided Kara with my contact details.  

The medals were awarded to 136723 LAC Keith Edward Crowne who served in the RAAF during WWII. 

Keith was a sheet metal worker before the outbreak of the war so his skills would have been of considerable importance to the war effort both in a civilian capacity and in uniform.

Keith's life was easy to follow through the public records. Luckly. I found him on a family tree which gave me a clue to the surname of a member of the current generation. It took a bit of an educated guess to narrow down the best person to contact, but a distinctive name combination led me to Keith's grand daughter, Anita. 

I've now connected Kara and Anita so that the physical return of the medals can be arranged. 

Thank you to all the people who made a referral or put Kara in touch with me. This is a great outcome just before Anzac Day and also marks passing the 3000th returned medal milestone.  

The returned medal tally is now 3002.

SGT Eric McCormack - RAAF WW2

This search took about 24 yours in total but some conflicting information made the search for the family of Eric John McCormack that bit harder.

Eric's WW2 RAAF service record provided all the basics I needed. Some post war letters included in the record help me to confirm he was still alive in 1985. However, multiple family trees on Ancestry indicated he died in 1977. This took me down a rabbit hole until I established that a person with exactly the same name died in Sydney in 1977 where as Eric lived in Melbourne.

Once that confusion was sorted out, I focused my search on Tasmania where Eric was born in 1911. To the best of my knowledge, Eric did not marry so I started looking at the families of his many siblings. Several other brothers service during WW2 including Alexander Mark McCormack and Phillip Sylvester McCormack.

I found a death notice for Phillip which helped me verify all the family connections and finally led me to the decedents of another brother, Hector.

I've just been in contact Hector's great grand daughter. I'll return the medal to her. Hopefully, they will arrive by Anzac Day, no pressure Australia Post.

The returned medal tally is now 2998.