Thomas Joshua Lyons

Readers who have have seen the Lost Medals Australia Face Book page might recall that on Friday I was interviewed by ABC Newcastle about a WWI Victory Medal awarded to 3839 Thomas Joshua Lyons. The medal had been found by Rod Pritchard who was doing some metal detecting.
From the time I was first contacted, at about 1200, until I spoke on air at 1540, I was able to piece together a family tree and provide the presenter the name and phone number of Thomas' great nephew.
Thomas was 42 when he enlisted, single and his next of kin was his sister Gertrude Muggleton. Thomas was allocated to 31st Battalion and on 26 October 1917 he died of wounds received fighting in Belgium. He is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. Thomas also had a brother, James. The usual precedence was that if a single mean who died and he had no parents, any medals were sent to the eldest brother. However, there is a letter on the service file stating that Thomas' medals were to be sent to Gertrude.
My search got off to a shaky start. Gertrude's married name was mispelt as Muggleston and I went down a rabbit hole. Once I worked out it should be Muggleton I got lost again but then found that Gertrude's full name was Ellen Gertrude. That was the key to unlocking the entire story.
Gertrude married Henry (known as Harry) Charles Muggleton. Gertrude died in 1954 and Henry in 1961. The electoral rolls provided the name of their son, Noel Thomas, know as Tom. I wondered if the use of Thomas was in memory of his dead uncle.
Tom had a large family and it didn't take long to work out the names of his eight children. In the 1980 electoral roll (the last available on line) is listed Tom's son Leo Bernard Muggleton. This was to unusual combination of names to ignore and within seconds I found that Leo is a Sydney base lawyer.
I provided all the details to the ABC who contacted Leo today and told him the full story. Leo was later interviewed but unfortunately I was in a meeting and couldn't listen in.
I spoke to Leo tonight and found out a bit more information. As I suspected, the name Thomas has traveled down the generations. Leo has also visited Thomas' grave in Belgium.
I think that Rod who found the medal should be congratulated on making the effort to see that this medal was returned to the family.
The returned medal tally is now 1647.

Royal Navy Sig Boy

Every now and then we receive a medal which is a bit out of the ordinary. This BWM arrived in the mail last week from Paul B of WA. The naming on the medal is to J87212 Albert Edward Casey, Signal Boy, Royal Navy. I've only seen this rank on a medal in photos.
The British records showed that Albert was born on 15 January 1905 and joined the Royal Navy before 1914. He served through until about 1920. In 1924 Albert emigrated to Australia where he married Jessie Winifred Mona O'Donoghue in 1934. Albert and Jessie lived mostly around Newcastle, NSW and in 1948 he was appointed to the NSW public service. At some point in the 1970s Albert and Jessie moved to Perth and in 1980 they were living in Scarborough. Albert died on 6 July 1980 and Jessie on 8 December 1995.
With out any direct descendent and no siblings of Albert's that I could identify, I started to look at Jessie's family. She was the daughter of John O'Donoghue and Selina Weekes. Jessie had two brothers but neither appear to have had children. However, I found a clear line from the Weekes family to Greg Weeks who lives only 30 km from me. Greg has an extensive family tree on Ancestry and hold many other family medals. I hope to meet with Greg soon and hand over the medal.
The returned medal tally is now 1646.

Charles Pertel

This search is another that started after receiving a box of medals from the WA RSL. The British War Medal awarded to 2595 Charles Pertel has had a hard life as can be seen in the photos. The suspender is bent and loose, the edge is damaged and the surface is pitted. All that really doesn't matter as the naming is still quite clear.
Charles was born in Russia in 1889, he arrived in Australia, via New York on 5 November 1908. After WWI he settled in Broken Hill and married Edith White. They had one daughter, Ruby May Pertel.
Charles appears to have enlisted for WWII but the records are incomplete. He died in 1942. There was then a big gap that I couldn't fill until I came across the wedding notice of Ruby to Hugh Carney in the Broken Hill newspaper via Trove. I was able to follow Ruby and Hugh through to 1980 when the on-line electoral rolls cease. The last entry gave me the name Jan Carney at the same address but there the trail went cold. I had to go back to the 1930s to work out who Hugh's brothers were. This branch of the family was a bit easier to follow and I soon found a likely candidate in the White Pages. Shortly after I was provided with Jan's phone number. We have just spoken and I now know that Ruby is still alive.
Thanks to Wendy at the WA RSL.
The returned medal tally is now 1645

John Peach

Another medal that I received recently from the WA RSL was the Defence Medal awarded to WX2112 John Henry Peach. I found John on an Ancestry family tree and a message was soon dispatched. The tree is owned by Diane who forwarded my message to David who is John's grandson. We have now been in contact and I'll dispatch the medal in the near future.
The returned medal tally is now1644.

Neil Anderson - a story of coincidences

This story has far to many coincidences.
After the publication of the Brook story in the Canberra Times I was contacted by Dr Laurence Anderson. He had found a collection of items under a house which included three WWII medals, letters, address books and even old bank passbooks. The medals were in their original box and addressed to Neil Anderson. I had to look twice to confirm that despite their surnames being the same there was on other connection between Laurence and Neil. That was the first coincidence.
The information that Laurence provided from the the documents he found showed that Neil was a British soldier who served in the Royal Engineers. A search of Ancestry confirmed that a Neil Macarthur Anderson lived at the address that the medal were found at. I also found that he died in 1973. From the 1977 electoral roll I worked out that the name of one of Neil's daughter's is Janet Macarthur Anderson. There was no sign of this name in the 1980 electoral roll but with such an unusual first and second name combination I soon found Janet's married name. This led me to a phone number in northern NSW.
At the same time, I arranged to collect the medals from Laurence whose practice is directly opposite my office. Coincidence number 2. I wandered across the road today and met Laurence. The next coincidence is that Laurence has an interest in military history and has combined this with his hobby of film making. He recently made a short film called The White Feather. The trailer can be seen at this link. Laurence also introduced me to one of his staff who had seen the Canberra Times story and told Laurence about it knowing that he had found the Anderson medals. Yet another coincidence.
This evening I called Janet and explained what Laurence had found. I could really hear the surprise and excitement in her voice when we talked about the discovery. I now know that Neil was at Dunkirk and took part in the D Day landings.
The pictures shows Neil's medals, including a France and Germany Star. As was the custom for British WWII medals, they were issued un-named. However, as they were found in their original box of issue it is very easy to attribute them to this solider.
The returned medal tally is now 1643.

 

John Topliss

Bill and I never fail to be amazed at what gets handed in to the the RSL State Branches and then forwarded to us. Long time readers will recall the NSW box and the medals we have received from the Victorian and West Australian RSLs. Yesterday, I received a box from Wendy, my contact at the WA RSL which contained several medals groups.
One of the groups was awarded to F4106 John Alfred Topliss. The number is for a member of the RAN whose home port was Fremantle. From the WA electoral rolls I was able to work out that John Alfred and his wife had a son by the name of John Edward. There are no electoral rolls past 1980 on line so I lost the trail. However, by a frustrating process of elimination I worked out the maiden name of John Edward's wife. This led me to the Brady Family Tree in Western Australia which listed John and his wife so I fired off a message. By this morning I had been connected with John's daughter who has suggested that her brother, also named John, is the best person to receive the medals.
Thank you Daryl and Michelle for your prompt assistance.
The returned medal tally is now 1640.

 It was normal practice that WWII stars awarded to RAN were un-nammed.

Walter Dryburgh

Some returns are just meant to happen.
At 1755 this afternoon I opened an email from Dennis of Melbourne. He asked me to call him so he could explain the full story behind a group of medals he purchased many years ago. Being a former solider and having respect for the man who was awarded these WWI medals, he had them mounted and framed. The medals were awarded to 807 Walter Vincent Dryburgh who served with the 29th and 32nd Battalions, AIF.
While I was talking to Dennis I searched Ancestry and found Walter on several family trees. The owner of one promising looking tree was marked as private but I was able to determine two points. Firstly the owner was Walter's great niece and the tree title was TiffanyDryburgh. A quick search of the internet took me straight to the website of photographic artist Tiffany Dryburgh. This was far to much of a coincidence so I called the contact number and sure enough I had the right person. This was all done by 1813 (sorry Bill). I've now connected Dennis and Tiffany. Dennis has kindly given me permission to post the photo he provided.
The returned medal tally is now 1635.

 

Post update 20 Apr 15

I have just received a photo of the return of Walter Dryburgh's medal to Tiffany Dryburgh.

News story from Lost Medals Australia

The story about the medals awarded to John Brook and his daughter Enid has a follow up in the Canberra Times.

Kenric Morrison

Kenric James Ker Morrison enlisted in 1915 and allocated to to 30th Battalion, AIF. He later commissioned and transferred to 57th Battalion, AIF. On 1 October 1918, Kenric was wounded in action and eventually lost his arm.
When Kenric returned to Australia he settled in Hornsby, NSW with his wife Ina and established a poultry farm. The street they lived on is now called Morrison Place. Kenric died in 1955 and didn't have any children.
Kenric's brother was Roland Noel Morrison who was a chaplain. At aged 56 he enlisted for service in WWII. As the padre of the 2/23 Battalion he was at Tobruk and was Mentioned in Dispatches.
I've located Roland's grand son, Ian, also a padre and I'll send him the medal in the near future.
Much thanks go to the Huxley family who I met in Canberra when they gave me the medal.
The returned medal tally is now 1632.

Father and daughter groups

In the past I've researched father and son groups but I can't remember having returned medals to a father and daughter.
The father is 22036 Gunner John Herbert Brook and the daughter is NF451938 Enid Mary Brook. The medals came to me in a tin that was found by the great team of The Green Shed. Working out who Enid married was reasonable easy as there was a badge in the tin with the name Forbes. Using all the small clues I was able to put it altogether and I've now been in contact with Enid's daughter.
The returned medal tally is now 1631.

More success for Bill

More success for Bill.

The search for the family of Flight Lieutenant B began with a mystery package previously referred to on this blog.

For once the sun seemed to smile on me. I was able to find the grave plaque of our veteran along with that of his wife. These gave me their children's details and I was able to progress from there.

The medal disappeared many years ago while the family was moving. While there is only one of the  medals now back in the family, I advised them to get it mounted so there is less chance of losing it in the future.

The returned medal tally is now 1627.

Charles Nayler

This story from Bill has both a positive and negative aspect.

The search for the family of QX9091 Charles Thomas Nayler started when a former vice president of a Qld RSL was asked to arrange the remounting of a set of medals.
His problem, he explained, was that on checking them he discovered that there was a 'ring in', namely the 1939-1945 ASM, of Nayler. This I believe occurred when the medals were originally mounted by a ‘professional’ medal mounting service many years ago.

As you can imagine this search has involved a lot frustration and dare I say it, angst. To avoid any unnecessary embarrassment to several families that have now or are now becoming involved I have not included any further details. However, I will merely say that several sets of medals are currently being ‘examined’.

This, by the way, is not as rare as it seems. Recently an ex-serviceman was looking for his medals. The medals had been set up in a display case back in 2004. It is only recently he realised that the medals in his display frame are not his. Unfortunately, the shop that mounted the medals went out of business quite some time ago.

To those of you who read this Blog and have medals and are considering having them re-mounted, please remember to check the inscription on the medal when you go to collect them.

The returned medal tally is now1626.