Denis Costello

I thought that the search for the family of 2832 PTE Denis Francis Costello would be straight forward. With his unusual combination of names and the information in his service record I anticipated a quick return. This proved to be wrong. Between Bill and I and the helpful team of the Australian Surname Group we put together a considerable amount of information on the Costello family. Finding a relative proved to be the difficult bit.
Costello was a member of the 1st Pioneer Battalion and there is an interesting comment in his service record that says he was accidentally injured with a knife wound to the chest and that the wound did not occur as part of his military duties. Unfortunately, there is no further information as to why this occured.
This Victory Medal came to me originally from the NSW RSL and is one of only a few we have left from this box.  It will be returned to Denis' great niece.
The returned medal tally is now 1191.

Gordon Selby

I know very little about the WWII service of V19131 Gordon Ralph Selby other than his V number indicates militia rather than 2nd AIF service and that he was a solider in the 3rd Base Ordnance Depot. Gordon's date of discharge was in 1948 rather in 1946 like most WWII soldiers. I suspect this is because he was involved in the decommissioning of weapons and ammunition at the base depot, a post war process that would have taken a considerable amount of time.
The medal was another one that was sent to me by Graham Docksey of the Albury RSL. This Australian Service Medal 1939-45 will be returned to a member of the Selby family to be added to other items of Selby family military history.
The returned medal tally is now 1190.

Alan Arthur

142165 Alan Raymond Arthur served in the Royal Australian Air Force for a period of almost three years. After initially researching a man with exactly the same name from the same small town in Victoria I realised I was going down the wrong path. These two gents were not related but once I started looking at the correct veteran in the records the search was quite easy.
I have just spoken to Mr Arthur's wife who tells me that Mr Arthur, now aged 92, is alive and well. I'll send Mr Arthur his medal in the very near future. Thanks to Richard D who sent me the medal.
The returned medal tally is now 1189.