Leslie John Edwin Schumacher

This search really stumped me for several days until I worked out the a very confusing family connection. It is probably best to start with the email I first received which commenced this piece of research.

David R contacted me about some medals which, according to his wife's family lore 'were given to his wife's grandfather in return for room and board at a hotel on the Atherton Tablelands'. This occurred in the 1950s. I osculated between thinking this was a plausible story or not. I'm now of the opinion that this is the likely way the medals left the ownership of the veteran. For many years these medals sat in a cupboard and even survived a house fire. David's family have been a faithful custodian but now is time to look for the soldier's family. 

The medals also caused a lot of confusion as they covered the a period of service from 1914 to 1950. The medals all have the same initials and surname but different service numbers. In my experience this usually means the medals were awarded to father and son who had exactly the same name. However, I couldn't find proof of this in any record. The soldier in question was Leslie John Edwin Schumacher. I found his WWI service record easy enough and the regimental number aligned with what is on the British War Medal. 

It was the next series of service numbers which threw me off even further. The WWII medals have the number NP746 and the Long Service and Good Conduct has the number 2/806. I recognised 2/806 as a post WWII series number which came into use in about 1948. The first number (2) indicates a soldier who initially enlisted in NSW which was the 2nd Military District. Later, the slash was removed although the first number representing a Military District continued to 2002. Thanks to a research paper written by an expert in Australian service numbers I confirmed NP numbers were allocated to permanent Army members during WWII who didn't transfer to the 2nd AIF.

The next hurdle was that I couldn't find evidence of WWII service on the DVA nominal roll or in the National Archives of Australia. This search was getting rather bizarre.

What I could find was Leslie in the electoral rolls. His occupation was always listed as 'soldier' and he was predominately posted to Brisbane and Townsville. In Townsville he was part of the costal artillery at Fort Kissing Point. In 1936 he was posted to Perth, specifically Rottnest Island. For those who know Rottnest they will also know the large gun emplacements on the highest point of the island. Leslie and his wife Margaret even had a married quarter at the barracks on the island. My family knows these houses very well as we would often rent one as a holiday house in the 1970s when Army still controlled them.

It wasn't until I found an article about Les' retirement after 40 years' service in the Australian Army did all the gaps get filled.

I still couldn't work out the family relationships especially when I came across the name Leslie John Schumacher. This Leslie was in the NSW police and for a couple of days I thought this was the same person I was researching. Then via a combination of electoral roll entries, BDM records from three states and newspaper stories, I put the connections together.

Leslie John Edwin Schumacher was born in 1890 and joined the Army in 1910. He retired in 1950 after 40 years' service which was rather unusual at the time. Prior to WWI he married Margaret and they had a daughter Alma Joy. Alma served in the RAAF in WWII. She married Basil Victor Wakeford in Perth in 1945. They remained in WA after WWII. Alma died in 2012 and there is no evidence she had any children. This makes Les' line extinct.

Multiple records, including the front page of his WWI service record, show that Les came from Tent Hill a small village near Emmaville, NSW. I also found his name on the Tent Hill war memorial.

I then started looking at the wider family. Leslie John Edwin Schumacher was the son of Johann Christian Schumacher. They lived in Tent Hill and Emmaville, NSW. Another son of Johann was Christian William Schumacher. It was Christian who named his son Leslie James, most likely for his  brother. Christain's obituary confirmed the link to Leslie the policeman.

All this led me to Leslie's great great niece. She is now connected with David and the medals are on their way back to the family. Based on the information David has provided I'm even more convinced now that there was some tangible connection between Les and David's wife's grandfather.

The returned medal tally is no 2786.