Not long after Anzac Day I received an email from Emelie, a producer for the 2GB Drive show with Jim Wilson. Jim had been contacted by a listener who had a WWII Pacific Star that was found amongst her possessions but did not belong to her family. The listener, Carol, was hopeful that the 2GB audience could help find the family of NX29664 Sapper Bernard O'Reilly.
Emelie also put a post on social media which my mate Grahame M saw and passed my details to Emelie. It took a couple of hours to work out that Bernard died in 1979. He had a son, also named Bernard, but know as Bernie, but he died in 2019.
Bernie's death notice gave me the contact details for the funeral director which I provided to Emelie and from there things moved pretty fast.
Yesterday Bernard's Pacific Star was handed back to his family live on air:
Well done Glynne
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Brilliant Glyn. I can see you being inundated very shortly by all those people who may have a found medal and werent quite sure what to do about it and have listened to that radio chat. Even after the amount we have worked on together it still gives me goosebumps to know a medal is going home. All the best, regards Ted in WA.
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