AASM for East Timor

It never fails to amaze me what turns up in the post. I recently received a package with no return address but there was an unsigned note asking me to please return to the original owner. The note suggested the veteran served with the 4th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment. 

The medals in the package were the Australian Active Service Medal with clasp East Timor the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) medal and an Infantry Combat Badge.

A bit of searching led me to a former 2nd Commando Regiment soldier with the same initial/surname combination. I was confident I was on the right track since 4 RAR (CDO) completed a tour of East Timor in 2001 before being renamed 2 Cdo Regt. This person's first name is Ryan. 

This morning I spoke to this veteran and Ryan confirmed he was indeed to person I was looking for. Ryan told me these medals went missing many years ago and while he was able to receive a replacement AASM, UN medals are not re-issued. 

Thank you to the unknow sender.

The returned medal tally is now 2931.

Multiple family connections

This return stated with a message from Allison and ended having followed a path I would never have expected. 

Allison's original message provided me with the service details of VF395580 Merle Chave Brown. This name wasn't familiar to Allison who had been given the medal while working in a nursing home in  bayside Melbourne in 2012.  

I found that Merel was the daughter of Alfred Ernest Brown and Elizabeth Mary Brown (nee Chave). She married Norman Douglas Graham who had been a POW during WWII. Merel and Norm didn't have any children of their own. However, Merel's death notice; she died in 2010, mentions she was an aunt, a great aunt and a great great aunt. This suggested to me that she was from a big extended family and probably still remembered.

Merle's sister, Pearl, had a son who was mentioned on her headstone. This gave me a name, Rodney, to follow. Through the abundance of information available on the internet I worked out Rodney's granddaughter's name. This was all pretty straight forward until I linked this lady to a name in Canberra which is very familiar to me. As it happens, the familiar name belongs to a school mate of mine. Despite us both coming from far off Perth we have both spent meany years in Canberra and bumped into each other on occasion. I fired of a message and sure enough, the young lady I was looking for is the girlfriend of my mate's son. 

With this connection made, I was soon in touch with Rodney. He and Allison have met up recently and Merel's WWII medal is back with her family.   

The returned medal tally is now 2928