More information about Lawrence James

Since first contacting the family of, then posting the story about, Captain Lawrence James, I have had wonderful engagement with Lawrence's grand daughter, Peta. 

Peta has sent me some great family photos and kindly given me permission to share. 

This is a  portrait of Lawrence and with a separate picture of Rose. Peta tells me: 'This is a photo of him with a separate one of his wife in front in World War 1. This was how it was when I was given it so I left it like that. The frame is supposed to be made from a propeller of a plane flown by Charles Kingsford Smith.'

This is a replica set of Lawrence's WWI medals, now with the original British War Medal.

These last two photos are of Rose's original WWI medals and her certificate of appointment in the Australian Army Nursing Service.   

Update: 23 July 2021

When I was researching Lawrence, I sought expert assistance from the members of the British Medal Forum. To my very pleasant surprise, one member, Mike, let me know that he has a watercolor painting of HMS Huntsgreen. Mike has kindly provided me a photo of the painting with the following extra details:

The painting is signed J. A. G. Thompson, and dated 1922, and, as you can (just about) see, is quite dramatic.

 

Helping out the Victorian Police

It is always great to help out the police. This return followed a request from the Victorian Police to locate the family of NX166801 George Edward Smith. The police had recovered four WWII medals awarded to George.

There is not a lot to this story other than to say that the search was successful and the medals will soon be returned to George's grandson.

The returned medal tally is now 2636.

Helping out two different state Police forces

Over the last week I've been lucky enough to be able to help out the Queensland Police Service and the Victorian Police with two searches.

The first search was for the family of 14553 John Leslie Chesher who served in the RAAF during WWII. John's dog tags had been handed in and Kylie T from the Palm Beach Police Station asked for assistance. John led a pretty quiet life and there wasn't many public records available. I did found another name at the same address John was living at in San Souci, NSW in the 1970s. I provided this to Kylie who was able to use resources available to her to narrow down this name to an individual who turned out to be John's nephew.

The second search was for the recipient of an Australian Defence Medal which had been handed in to Leading Senior Constable Lara M at the Sunshine Police Station in Victoria. Similarly to the other search, just by providing the full name to Lara she was able to locate the owner.

It has been a real pleasure helping out both Kylie and Lara and the respective state police force.  

The returned medal tally is now 2632.

WG Parker

I recently received a parcel from the Directorate of Honours and Awards which contained three medals all awarded to separate servicemen and each with interesting stories.

The first story is of a 1914-15 Star awarded to ON4138 Ord Sig William Gromalle Parker. William was a member of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve and I was a little surprised that his period of service ended in early 1915. It made sense when I found an AIF service record for him. The front page states that William has three years service in the RANR and that he is 'still serving'. William became 1130 Private WG Parker and allocated to the 30th Battalion. William was wounded in action in France and was eventually discharged in 1917.

After WWI, William became a hair dresser and had a large family. One of his sons was Eric Stuart Parker and it is Eric's son Steve who I have contacted. Steve tells me that in the not to distant future there will be a family reunion and he is sure that this medal will create quite a bit of interest. 

The returned medal tally is now 2632. 

 

LV James DSC update

My friend Frev has done a lot more research about Lawrence and Simmie and added the details to the Discovering Anzacs website.

AC Coffey

Medals turn up in the places where there is often no logical explanation as to why is should be there. When Susan L contacted me about a medal she found in Goulburn, and there was no family I could immediately identify in the area, I set aside why the medal was found about 70km north of where I live. 

VX14581 Alexander Charles Coffey was born in Maitland, SA which is on the Yorke Peninsula to the West of Adelaide. His life was a little confusing and finding a relative, despite a large family, was a little difficult. Alexander, sometimes referred to as Alex and at other times Alick, enlisted in March 1940. In 1942, while in Brisbane, he married Phyllis. The trail of Phyllis Coffey ran out not long after the war, although she was still in Brisbane after WWII when Alex was was living elsewhere. I had to assume they divorced. There is no evidence they had any children. I found Alex in 1953 living with a new wife, Audrey. They were living in Goulburn which explained that part of the mystery. However, by 1956 both Alex and Audrey were dead. Once again, they don't appear to have had any children. 

One of Alex's brothers, Patrick, was a licensee of two hotels in Goulburn so there is a definite link to that town but the lead ran out when I found that his brother and his wife also died in the 1950s. Having hit one brick wall after another, I refocused the research on South Australia. The clues that led to success was Alex's father's name, John and that he was from Kadina, SA. Almost immediately, I found the headstone for John and Flora Coffey.

Knowing these two name narrowed the search and I soon found a tree which included John and Flora. I've now been in touch with Jess whose father in law is Alex great nephew. 

I'll be sending Alex's Defence Medal off to South Australia in the near future. The returned medal tally is now 2631.  

 

 

LV James, DSC

Some stories really draw me in as I get to know families through the research to find out about a medal I have. That is definitely the case in the search for the family of Lawrence Vernon James. 

The medal was sent to me by Nicky and Eian M who found the medal under the following circumstances:

'There is sure to be a story attached to this medal because it is a complete mystery how it came to be just sitting on the top of the garden bed when I have not only gardened in this area for years, but we frequently walked past it whenever we go to the back shed'

It took me a bit of time to work out exactly who I was looking for as some records had the name spelt as Lawrence and others as Lawrance. Indeed, this misspelling caused me some concern as well as providing me a bit of medal education. When I first received the medal it was very apparent to me that the medal had been altered slightly. The rim near the naming is thiner than it should be as is width of the medal at the same point. While not easy to see it is very noticeable to the touch. In most cases I would suspect that this medal was renamed to some one other than the original recipient. However, the naming looked to be official and not poorly done as I've usually seen on medals that have been renamed. I checked with the members of the British Medals Forum who are far more knowledgeable than I am on this type of thing. I found that the naming was consistent with a medal issued by the Admiralty, that it was not unusual for a medal that had an incorrectly name to be returned so that a correction could be made and that the naming indicated someone who served in the Merchant Navy. Based on this information, I am of the opinion that Lawrence's first name was misspelt with an 'a' rather than an 'e' and he returned the medal to be corrected. Once I knew all this I was able to narrow down exactly who I was looking for.

With the confirmation of Lawrence's correct name and occupation I found his date of birth, 1880, and when he received his Master's certificate. Then came the surprise, Lawrence was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross at the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) for his skillful handling of his ship.

There was only a few references to Lawrence in the public records after WWI. Mostly these related to ship movements or court cases that involved member's of the crew on ship captained by Lawrence. The vital clue was a record of Lawrence's marriage to Eleanor Rose Simpson. Then the search got really interesting.

Eleanor was Staff Nurse (later Sister) Simpson who served in the Australian Army Nursing Service during WWI. Eleanor's record shows that she had to resign in 1917 when she married. Before this she had nursed those who were wounded or evacuated sick from Gallipoli.

I'm not exactly sure when Eleanor returned to Australia to live but I did find the emigration record for their son Peter Vernon James. Peter served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve during WWII. In 1950 he emigrated with his wife, three daughters and his sister. 

This gave me multiple clues to follow up. What I found was that Peter married Dorothy after she had divorced, it didn't appear that his sister Patricia married and the names of his step daughters to compare to the BDM records. 

I tried to follow Peter but other than a few electoral roll entries all the clues ran out in 1997 when he died. His death notice didn't provide many clues of value but the epitah with reference to his time at sea is touching.

From the NSW BDM, I established that Rosalyn Ethel married Ronald Freeman. From the electoral rolls I could easily follow Rosalyn, Ronald and their family as they moved on several occasions. The leads ran cold from the 1980s so I had to go back to the records I could confirm some facts on several occasions. Then something rang a bell of familirarity. On the back of the envelope that Nicky sent me the medal in was a street name in St Ives, NSW. I checked the exact address with her and this is what was familar. Rosalyn and Ronald had lived at the same address in 1954. It appears that the several blocks were owned by Ronald's family and used as an orchard before being developed for housing. It appears that the medal has been there for all the time but it is a mystry as to why it would appear now.

Finding one of Lawrence's decendent's proved difficult so I looked at Peter's wife, Dorothy. I soon found her on an Ancesry tree that is owned by Dorothy's nephew. This is Martin who was able to very quickly put me in touch with his first cousin, Peta. I know this name from the emigration record where Peta is listed as 5 months old in 1950.  

Peta and I are now in contact and she is so proud of the family's heoric service. It is such a pleasure to be able to return this medal to Peta.    

Thank you to Nicky and Eian. The retruned medal tally is now 2630.