WWII Australian Army Nursing Service

There are a couple of things which surprised me when I first looked at this medal. 

Firstly, the medal is not named. In most cases WWII medals awarded to Australians, unlike those awarded to British soldiers, are named. There are plenty of examples on this blog. However, there are always exceptions and the odd Australian WWII medal was issued un-named as is the case with this Pacific Star.

How I know who received this medal is due to it being with a slip of paper noting who the recipient was. In this case to QX6277 DM Tomlins. Then came the second surprise. This is Captain Daphne May Tomlins, Australian Army Nursing Service. I would have expected her service number to be QFX noting a female but there seems to be a bit of confusion. As can be seen in Daphne's service record there are several manuscript amendments and the 'F' is added into the service number.

Daphne didn't marry and died in 1994. I was able to put together a family tree and follow her siblings through the electoral rolls. However, finding a member of the current generation proved a challenge. This family has used the same first and middle names through a few generations and I made a couple of calculated guesses which bought me to a gentleman I suspected to be Daphne's nephew. I fired off an email and today spoke to this nephew who just happens to live in Canberra. In the near future we will meet up and I will be able to personally hand back Daphne's Pacific Star.

I must thank Donna from Defence Honours and Awards who forwarded the medal to me after is was handed in. It arrived yesterday so this whole search was resolved in less that 12 hours.

The returned medal tally is now 2799.