WWII group of 5 - KF Salmon

The research for this return only took about an hour but it is the end result which I couldn't have predicted.

These five WW2 medals were awarded to VX106680 Keith Francis Salmon. They were handed into the Ipswich Police station and Sergeant Morrison contacted me to see if I could find the family. The path to success started with an Ancestry tree message to Nate B-M who is Keith's third cousin, twice removed via his mother. Not a close relative but Nate was able to put me in contact with Amy, a closer relative to Keith. I sent Amy a message and within minutes I had received a response with the phone number of her father, Steve. Steve is Keith's nephew. What came as a surprise is that Steve and I served together in the same unit a few years ago. It was great to talk to him again and be able to put him in contact with Sergeant Morrison.

Thanks so much to Nate and Amy for the wonderful assistance you provided which resolved this search with considerable speed. 

The returned medal tally is 2688.

     

1939-45 Star - VG Clarke

The end of the work year and Christmas has left a little gap in my follow up administration. Now is time for a bit of catch up.

In November I received a message from Traudy who had found a 1939-45 Star in her late father's car. The medal was awarded to VX150252 Victor Gavin Clarke. Victor was pretty easy to follow through the public records. I also found him included on an Ancestry family tree. A message to the tree owner soon connected me with Victor's son. I've now connected Traudy and Wayne so the medal can be returned to Victor's family.

Thank you to Gavin who helped me put all the pieces in place.

The returned medal tally is now 2683.

WWI trio - PTE GEM Woods

It has been almost a month since the last blog post about a successful return. I haven't been sitting idle and I'm on the brink of several search conclusions. I just need that last piece of information that will let me work out who to contact and return some medals to. 

The final piece of information to contact a relative of 137 Private George Ernest Martin Woods was the hardest piece of this puzzle and the story behind that is almost as intriguing and the story behind the medals. 

I received the WWI trio awarded to George from a colleague of mine in Army Headquarters. Dr Arron P gave me the medals on 14 December 2021 with the following explanation. A contact of his had found the medals in a wall cavity of a house in Dudley St, Asquith, NSW. How long the medals had been hidden away is a mystery. However, a letter in George's service record started to put the pieces of the puzzle together.   

George's service record is 81 pages and gives considerable detail of what he was up when he served in the 1st Field Company Engineers. This included being wounded and being charged for missing Tattoo. After George returned to Australia he married Mona Drybrough in 1919. Following George through the electoral rolls was quite easy until he died in 1957. His death notice gave me the first names of his children and grand children. All this took about 40 minutes to work out but it was a letter from 1967 applying for the Anzac medallion sent by George's daughter, Edna Jean Kenway, that was the real clue I was looking for. I had a surname to work with.

As it turned out Edna went by her middle name, Jean. I found quite a bit of detail about Jean as a bush walker and member of the Batemans Bay Bushwalkers Club. I sent an enquiry to the club secretary who kindly provided me some additional information. Firstly, the sad news was that Jean had died in recent years but I also received a clue as to the geographic location of where on of Jean's daughters lives. Unfortunately, I couldn't make contact, so I went back to the research.

It was Jean's bushwalking adventures which gave me the next clue. I found a newspaper story on Trove about Jean which named her daughter as Jenny Fuller. And to my surprise, Jenny lived, at the time, in Canberra.

I worked out that Jenny was married to Peter but their current address eluded me. I lost several days trying to chase them down until social media came to the rescue. The next surprise was it appeared Jenny and Peter had moved to WA. I sent them a message but didn't receive a response which didn't really surprise me. A review of Jenny's profile relieved that Jenny and I have a mutual contact. My friend Imelda came to the rescue and through her friend Teresa my contact details were passed to Jenny. Within an hour I was talking to Jenny. She no longer lives in WA but closer to me in NSW and we have made arrangements to met in the near future so that George's medals can be returned.

The returned medal tally is now 2682. This search couldn't have been completed without great help from Karen, Teresa and my dear friend Imelda.