Hamlet Farlow

This is another occasion where the travels of a medal is a mystery.

This British War Medal was awarded to 2595 Hamlet Oscar Farlow. Hamlet was born in NSW and died there in 1949. However, his medal came to me from Jeff in Tasmania. How it travelled there is the mystery.

Other than the basic information about Hamlet and the usual administrative notes, is service record provided two interesting pieces of information. Firstly, he was court martialled for being AWOL and second, he was wounded in action. After discharge Hamlet returned to Sydney and  listed in the electoral rolls as a labourer. 

Hamlet did not have any children. However, he did come from a large family with many siblings and I have found a great nephew of Hamlet who I'll send the medal to in the near future. 

Thanks to Jeff for trusting me with the medal and to Rick for the safe hand delivery.

The returned medal tally is now 2652.

John Harrison

Each piece of research we do tends to throw up one interesting piece of information that makes that case not what Bill or I expect. During this research into 3350 John Harrison there were two bits of information that made this search than bit different.

The 1914-15 Star and British War Medal awarded to John were sent to me by Trevor Hogan from the Kalamunda RSL sub-branch. Trevor and his fellow RSL members were keen to see these medals returned to John's family. When the medals arrived the first surprise was apparent immediately.

It is not unknow for medals to have mistakes on them but actually seeing a mistake is not very common. The 1914-15 Star has the number 3330, however, the British War Medal has the number 3350. John's correct number is 3350. These differences can be seen in the pictures below.

The second surprise is who John named as his next of kin. I often see soldiers who nominate a friend as the NOK. The circumstances tend to be that the soldier was an immigrant and had no family locally or left in their country of origin. John nominated his friend Annie Taylor as his NOK. Annie's address was care of Richard Taylor of Baddera, WA. It took some hours of research to determine that Annie was the 13 year old daughter of Henry Richard Taylor. 

At the time of his enlistment, John was 42 years of age. He was a single miner having emigrated from Lancashire, UK. I can only speculate that he named Annie as his NOK is case he was killed in action and she would receive any benefits. John survived the war, although he was wounded on several occasions while serving with 11th Battalion. He was discharged in late 1917 and returned to Baddera. That is the last public record I could find that confirms John's location. I think he died in 1929 having never married. 

John was born in White Haven, UK in 1873. I found his birth record but there was no additional information about his parents or any siblings. I then focused on Annie as the NOK. Annie married into a family with a very distinctive surname and were from a regional area north of Perth. Using the electoral rolls I was able to determine the names of Annie's children. One son is named Winston. This first name, combined with the distinctive surname, made the last phase of the research easy. Within 10 minutes of working out Winston's name I was speaking to him on the phone. The whole story of John, and his connection with Annie, was very exciting for Winston and he planned to share it immediately with his older sisters. Winston was extremely grateful to the Kalamunda RSL for wanting to see these medals returned to John's NOK.

I am thankful for the trust that Trever and the Kalamunda RSL placed in me to research these medals. This search is quite unusual and with an outcome that I didn't expect. 

The returned medal tally is now 2651.

John Willie Clarke

I often reflect on the randomness of how medals end up with me when their journey started on the other side of the world.

This WWI British War Medal was awarded to 1918 Private J W Clarke, West Yorkshire Regiment. Based on the unit I knew he was a British soldier. However, it took a while to narrow down this soldier's full name. Using the regimental number of 1918 didn't result in any search success. I do know that as the size of the British Army grew as the war progressed, units changed their numbering systems to allow for the addition of battalions to regimental organisations, death rates and movement of individuals. It is not uncommon to see a soldier with several regimental numbers. 

The primary source to check these regimental numbers and medal entitlement are the British Army medal cards which are held in the British National Archives. These cards are accessed via the NA website on a pay per access basis or through a third party like Ancestry. The search parameters I had to work with was this soldier's initials and surname. It turned out that there were several dozen soldiers with the name J W Clarke so I went through every card individually. These cards were all filled out by hand but I eventually found the correct card with the number 1918 written on it. This card also noted another regimental number which was 240361. From there I was able to determine that J W Clarke was killed in action on 1 March 1918. However, I still didn't know what the initials J W stood for.

It took a bit of reverse engineering research that started with the date of death that finally led me to work out that J W stood for John Willie. That was the clue that led me from Bradford, Yorkshire to Port Lincoln, South Australia. John and his wife Lena had a son in 1916. This was Herbert Clarke. I followed Herbert through immigration, electoral and death records. When Herbert moved to South Australia he obviously had his father's medals with him. That answered the question of how the medal travelled from Bradford to Port Lincoln. The final pieces of information about Herbert came from his headstone.

This led me back to Ancestry and I found Herbert on a tree owned by Deidre S. I fired off messages and emails and yesterday Deidre called to confirm all this research. How the medal left the Clarke family and ended up with Johny who sent me the medal renmains a mystery.

The returned medal tally is now 2649.