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.