Jim Farrell

This is turning in to a bit of a Royal Australian Navy week. 

This group of four WWII medals were definitely awarded as part of the first batch following the end of the war. They are quite different in the naming style to those awarded to Will Prior which I posted about recently. 

The group was awarded to S3771 James (Jim) William Farrell. The stars are unnamed as normal for RAN awards at the time and the medals are named with heavy impressing and a full stop between the letter and digits of the service number. From the service number, I knew that Farrell's home port was Sydney but his period of service was very confusing. His service records consists of four pages which was a bit of a surprise. He initially enlisted for a 12 year period in 1924 but finished his service in 1927. He re-enlisted in 1940 for WWII and was discharged in 1942. The reason for the unexpectedly short period of service in the 1920s was due to Jim being declared a deserter. I found this notice in the NSW Police Gazette.

I couldn't find out the reason for him deserting or any legal action that was taken against him. All must have been forgiven in 1940 when he enlisted again. Jim was married to Helena but there is no evidence that they had children. For quite some time Jim lived in a set of terraces in Blacktown with his siblings as neighbours. The terraces are long gone having been replaced by shops.

Jim died in 1958. With no direct descendent I started looking at his siblings. His sister Veronica, known as Vera, married James French. From their headstones I worked out the names of their children.

Know these names and finding their contact details are two completely different things. I did find this family on a Ancestry family tree. The tree is owned by Erin, who told me 'Graham's youngest daughter is married to my cousin'. Erin also provided the one clue which led me straight to Graham. Erin was able to tell me which town Graham lives in. I found a G France in that town in the White Pages so I called the number and sure enough I had the right family.  
    

I originally received these medals from Crystal 'Cricket' McK who told me that the medals were found in her late parent's possessions and may have been bought at an auction. Thank you to Erin who was able to provide me with the key piece of information which put me in touch with Jim's nephew. The returned medal tally is now 2672.

Will Pryor

I never fail to be surprised at the surprises these searches throw up. 

On the surface, when I first received this Australian Service Medal 1939-1945 it appeared to be quite straight forward. It was awarded to F5720 Arthur Edward Pryor, RAN. Arthur enlisted quite late in WWII, on 1 May 1945. His home port being Fremantle which is indicated by the F in his service number. Arthur gave his date of birth as 27 March 1927. Making him 18 when he enlisted. This didn't quite align with the date of birth I found for Arthur in the WA BDMs. The official record gives his year of birth as 1929 which made him 16 when he enlisted.

Arthur and his mother Annie, were easy to follow through the electoral rolls and a number of court case which were reported in the newspapers. Arthur and Annie left WA in 1948 and moved to Melbourne. The electoral rolls state that Arthur was a radio producer and scriptwriter. In the 1950's they moved to Sydney. Annie died in 1977 and that is the last record I could find of this family.

Annie is included on the Ancestry family of Jane who was able to fill in some blanks. Arthur's father was Thomas Herbert Pryor. Before WWII he separated from Annie and married a second time. He also changed the spelling of his name to Prior. Once I had this information I found Thomas' WWII RAAF service record. 

The next piece of information that Jane provided was that Arthur went by the name Will. Then came the next surprise. Will was a writer on the TV series Skippy. 

This medal appears to be a late issue. The naming style is not the same as those medals issued in the 1950s. The number is after the name, it is engraved rather than impressed and the engraving looks to have a shadow effect. 

Will's medal was sent to me by the Directorate of Honours and Awards and I'll send it to Jane to be the family custodian of this medal. The returned medal tally is now 2668.

  

WWII group of six medal

This search and return was rather straight forward but with a couple of twists.

It commenced in the usual manner when I was contacted by James R who had this group of six WWII medals. James did know a bit of the back ground behind the medals and that they were awarded to Peter Robinson. That confused me a bit as the medals were awarded to NX14775 Edward Murtough Robinson. It wasn't until I found Edward's death notice that I understood that he was know as Peter. There was a bit more confusion when I saw a second person named Peter at the same address. It turned out that this is Edward's son.

I hit a minor speed hump trying to work out Peter's current address but I did narrow down who his daughter is and within 10 minutes of sending her a message she connected me with Peter. Thank you  Amy. As it turns out Peter lives in Canberra not far from where I work so I'll drop his father's medals off in the near future.

The returned medal tally is now 2667.

 

Post update

 I've just updated the post about Mitchell Mills.

More assistance to the WA Police

No story, no pictures, just an acknowledgement of assisting the WA Police again. Three more medals have been returned to the family of a Vietnam War veteran.

The returned medal tally is now 2661 

Anniversary of National Service Medal - GJ Dyson

I recently received an Anniversary of National Service 1951-1972 Medal awarded to 3800688 Graham John Dyson. Graham was reasonably easy to track until 2017 when he sadly died. After that the trail went very cold. 

I did find that Graham was a champion shot and member of the Australian Match Rifle Association. I found a obituary for Graham in the Association news letter (page 6).  It was thanks to Philip B from this group who was able to connect me with Graham's family.  

The returned medal tally is now 2655.

Reg Murray

It is very uncommon to see the original packaging and documentation survive to accompany medals. I was very surprised to receive the box, outer wrapping, entitlement letter and General Service Badge letter with the WWII medals awarded QX36508 Reginald Arthur Murray.

Initially, Murray was a bit difficult to follow through the public records as on occasion his first two names are interchanged. Once I worked out his wife's name I used that as the primary search criteria. From that point it was relatively easy to follow the family and determine their son's name. I quickly found the son's details in the White Pages and the donor and I have been in contact with the family. I'll send the entire collection back to the family soon (NSW and ACT lockdown arrangements permitting).

Thank you to Albert for trusting me with these medals. The returned medal tally is now 2654.