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 

Back to the family, the long way

This is not the first time I've had this set of circumstances occur but it is nice to have a positive solution.

The 1914-15 Star and British War Medal awarded to 6596 LCPL John McCarthy, Royal Munster Fusiliers was sent to me by the Morrissey family in 2010. 14 years ago it was quite difficult to research the background of a British solider, although I did work out he died on 9 May 1915. Every few years or so I would recheck the details to see if additional information had been posted online. I kept coming up empty handed.

Last week I received an email from the grandson of the original donor asking about the circumstances of the 2010 correspondence. This prompted me to revisit the research and, thanks to Ancestry, I found the information I needed.

These photos are of correspondence from John to his cousin Pat Morrissey naming Pat as his next of kin. There is also an interesting comment about a link to Victoria Barracks in Sydney but I couldn't work out what that connect is.

 

The connection to the Morrissey family was now established and the medals will be returned to the family who donated them all those years ago. As it turns out the new family custodian is a retried solider and these medals will join his own and his grandfathers.

The returned medal tally is now 2928.

WWII medals with an interesting connection

This is the last of the medals from the recent package sent to me by the Directorate of Honours and Awards. Several of the other groups from this source were related to each other in a certain way, they were brothers or brothers in law. Even though all these medals were in the same box, the connection with this return but it took a bit longer to work out. 

The first medal I looked at was the WWII War Medal awarded to 26867 Motor Mechanic Alan David Morgan, RAN. Alan's next of kin was his wife Kathleen Hilda (nee Chapman). The married in 1935 and had a daughter, Helen. Following being demobilised in May 1946, he became ill and died on 9 Feb 47 and is listed on the AWM roll of honour. Alan and Kathleen had a daughter, Helen Divina Morgan. All these details are on his headstone, even though it is a bit hard to read. 

The next part of the puzzle was the medals awarded to VX69456 SGT George Franklin Palmer. 

George's next of kin was his wife Ivy. Ivy died in 1962 and George in 1986. This is Geroge's headstone, which is also difficult to read.

When I read 'stepfather of Helen' on George's headstone, I realised I had the link. George married Kathleen in 1963.

Kathleen, George and Helen lived in Warrnambool, SA. After Helen married Ian Saxby Reardon in 1958, their life took a turn and they headed to PNG with their young children. I found several stories about their life in PNG and the their long association with the other Australians involved in the PNG community.

Helen died in 2011 and Ian in 2020. The next challenge was trying to track down either Helen and Ian's two children. The lawyer who administered Ian's estate kindly passed my details to their son Mark who I spoke to today. 

Thank you once again to Donna at Honours and Awards. The returned medal tally is now 2926.

 

WWII medals and original box

There is not much of a story about the actual medals awarded to NX7812 Robert James Edward Anderson. The real story is what happened in the years after Robert died on 23 August 1955. There is a series of letters from Robert's widow about his medals. Then in 2000, Robert's son, also named Robert, wrote to Defence again about the medals and details about Robert's WWII service. These letters are rather touching.

I started this search for the Anderson family in mid July 2024. The message I originally sent was forwarded to Robert's grandson, Les. As it turns our Robert (junior), died on 3 September 2024 so didn't know the final chapter of his father's medals. I'll send these to Les in the near future. 

I usually post photos of the naming on each medal. However, these three medals awarded to Robert James Edward Anderson are still in their original wrapping and box. 

The returned medal tally is now 2920. 

 

WWI and WWII service

The next medal to be returned that came out of the Directorate of Honours and Awards package is the British War Medal awarded to 3394 Sydney Jon Clinch, 55 Bn AIF. Sydney also saw service during WWII as N448269.

Sydney was from a prominent Taree, NSW family. This is the obituary of his father, James Robert Clinch. This name continued on in the Clinch family and Sydney named one of his sons James Robert. 

The younger James also served during WWII in the militia with the number N448274. It looks like James was in a Reserved occupation and served part time. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the family in November 1944 when James died at the family property.

James' service record shows he did not die on duty.

Sydney died in 1963.

Sydney and his wife Bertha had several children including Irene 'Molly' Locke. It is Molly's son Peter who I've been in contact with and will send him his grandfather's medal in the near future.

Thank you once again to Donna from DHA. The returned medal tally is now 2917. 

WWI Military Medal

This medal was another surprise that came out of the recent package I received from the Directorate of Honours and Awards. The surprise being this is a Military Medal. 

The recipient of this medal was 717 SGT James Emmett Bourke who served in 2nd Battalion, AIF. The medal makes up a lot of the information in SGT Bourke's record of service. There are letters relating to the loss of his medals, requests for replacements and even an inquiry as to why he was awarded the MM.

SGT Bourke died in 1947 and the issue of his missing medal is well known in his family. It was easy to follow SGT Bourke through public records and work out his family. I was able to trace his oldest daughter 'Peggy' and today spoke to SGT Bourke's grandson, Andrew. Andrew told me that the medal was often mentioned and there was speculation as to why it went missing. After all these years the MM is being returned to SGT Bourke's family.

Thanks once again to Donna of Honours and Awards.

The returned medal tally is now 2916.

WWII group plus a bit more

This group was an interesting one to research. Once again it is from the Directorate of Honours and Awards package Donna sent me. 

The medals were awarded to Stanley Victor Charles. He served in WWII and was awarded the usual medals for someone who served in the Pacific. Following WWII he served in the newly formed Australian Regular Army (ARA) with the number 31354. 

It was for this post WWII service he was awarded two other medals which what makes this group interesting. The first is the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with Australia clasp, the ERII version. Hand engraving is used to name this medal which also includes 'ARA' after the name. I've not seen this style before. 

The second medal is the Meritorious Service Medal (Australia), also the ERII version.

Because Stanley served post WWII, his service record is not freely available yet, so it is difficult to know exactly what his service comprised of. 

I found Stanly on an Ancestry tree and the tree owner responded very quickly to my message. This piece of research took about 15 minutes to get a result.

The returned medal tally is now 2915.

 

The Redfern brothers

This is the second return out of the package I recently received from the Directorate of Honours and Awards. 

Like the return completed yesterday, this one has a family connection, the recipients were brothers.

The WWI group was awarded to 1367 Edward William Redfern. Edward was a member of 13 Bn, AIF and served at Gallipoli. Specific information provided by the family is that he was evacuated with influenza on 27 June 1915 then returned to Gallipoli on 1 August 1915. William was wounded for the first occasion at Lone Pine in 7 August 1915. He then was wounded again on 22 August 1915. This was a gunshot would to his left leg which caused him to be evacuated to the 21st General Hospital at Alexandria. Edward's condition deteriorated and he became dangerously ill. He died of his wounds on 26 November 1915.

The WWII group was awarded NX69901 Reginald Sylvester Redfern. Reg was seven years younger than Edward. The last page of Reg's service record indicates he died in 1971, he was single and his NOK was his sister, Mrs Beryl Standring. This led me to an Ancestry tree which is owned by Beryl's grandson, John. Within minutes of sending off a message I was chatting online with John. All this about 20 minutes after I started the research.

Thanks yet again to Donna for Honours and Awards.

The returned medal tally is now 2909.

WWI medals to brothers in law

Recently, one of my contacts at Defence Honours and Awards forwarded me a parcel containing seven separately packaged groups of medals, each with the soldier’s name on an envelope. As I did some preliminary research a few things jumped out at me. There will be more stories to come which explains the other surprises This was the first and it was it was a bit by chance that I discovered the connection with these two groups, considering I just gave the named envelopes a cursory glance.

The first soldier I looked at was 1017 Cecil Carrington Wamsley. I found Cecil quite quickly on several Ancestry family trees. When there are multiple trees containing the name I’m researching, I look at the details to ascertain the connection between the soldier and the tree owner. Some trees might have no apparent connection while others show the clear family linkage. The family path to a descendant of Cecil was pretty clear.

The next name I looked at was 38783 Arthur Menasseh Bailey. To my surprise Arthur’s wife’s name was Isabella Alice Elizabeth Wamsley. A more thorough search of the NSW BDM records confirmed this was Cecil's sister. Cecil and Arthur were brothers in law.

I’ve now been in contact with the Marcelle who is a descendant of this family, and I will soon be returning all these medals.

Thank you to Donna from Honours and Awards for sending me this very special package.

The returned medal tally is now 2900.

CC Wamsley

Bailey headstone