Medals for national service returned

The most difficult part of this search was working out what the recipient's first initial stood for. Once I had that the search was quite easy.

Yesterday, I received an email from Peter, the Honorary Secretary of the Penrith RSL sub-branch. Two medals had been handed in after being found in a Penrith street. The medal are the Australian Defence Medal and the Anniversary of National Service Medal. The medals are named to: A26813 N Melzer. From the number, I knew this was a RAAF national serviceman from NSW. Unfortunately, the name isn't on the Nashos nominal roll, the National Archives had no information and an Internet search was unsuccessful. 

Knowing that the recipient must have been at least in his 20s during the 1970s I started looking at all the  NSW electoral rolls with the surname Melzer. Only one 'N Melzer' appeared and this turned out to be the Rev Noel Melzer. From there is was a simple case of tracking Noel to his death in 2019 and confirming his wife's name, also through the electoral rolls. I found a 2025 mention of Mrs Melzer participating in an Anzac Day service and this led me to her current address. 

Peter confirmed today that he has been in contact with Mrs Melzer who has been looking for the medals since her husband died and is very please to be getting these back.

The returned medal tally is now 2948.

WWII pair - 3 LHR and DAC

This search started with an email which came completely out of the blue from fellow Army officer, Phil H. Phil's brother in law, Keith, also a former solider, had purchased a WI pair of medals off eBay. Phil court mounted the medals then asked me to locate the family of 2065A GNR Harry Gawler Schultz. 

Phil and Keith provided the following great research on Harry.

Harry was born on the 14 August 1891 at Angle Vale. His parents were Frederick Martin Schultz who was

born in 1853 at Koolunga and Maria Jane Cooper. Frederick was a farmer and his father was August

Schultz who was born in 1809. Frederick and Maria had the following children;

Amy Jane was born in 1881

Rose Mary was born in 1882

Sydney Clement was born in 1884

Edgar Frederick was born in 1885

Harry Gawler was born in 1891.

Harry enlisted on the 10 September 1915 and was assigned to the 14th Reinforcements, 1st Light Horse

Brigade, 3rd Light Horse Regiment. He was 24 years old and was a farmer. He had spent 18 months in the

17th Light Horse and then the 24th Light Horse. He was a driver and a gunner. Harry trained with the Light Horse at Mitcham until he sailed from Adelaide on the "WARILDA". He arrived at Heliopolis, Egypt and was transferred to the 4th Division Artillery. He was admitted to hospital in Cairo on the 1 May 1916 with influenza and mumps. He was also at Ismalia and Alexandria. On the 28 May 1916 Harry left Alexandria for England before travelling to France. On the 21 September 1916 he was admitted to hospital with V. D. He returned to the fighting for the rest of that year. On the 1 October 1917 he was transferred from the 4th Division to the Trench Mortar Batteries.

After the war ended he went on leave to England and was again admitted to hospital in France a number of

times with V. D. in the first quarter of 1919. He was returned to England on the 3 March 1919 where Harry

met and married Margaret Duncan of 5 North Port Street, Leith, Scotland on the 3 May 1919 at the United

Free Church by the Reverend Hugh Alexander. They returned to Australia on the "CANBERRA" on the

22 July 1919. Harry was discharged on the 2 November 1919. Margaret died on the 23 August 1952 and is buried in Enfield Memorial Park. Harry married again to Dora Louise McLean. Harry changed his name to McLean - Schultz. He died on the 4 April 1972 aged 80 years old at Daw Park whilst living at Goodwood. He is buried in Enfield Memorial Park.

These are Harry's medals.

There are a number of interesting things associated with the naming of Henry's medals.

Even though Henry spent the majority of the war posted to artillery units, his medals indicate an early posting, that was to 3rd Light Horse Regiment as a driver. His rank in the artillery regiments would have been gunner. 

Also, each unit started their regimental number sequence with 1. If a person transferred between units they kept the same number but so not as to be confused with the person with the same number in the unit the letter A was added after the number. This was the case with Harry, his British War Medals has the number 2065A, although the letter seems to be softly struck. The Victory Medals does not have an A. 

I have been in contact with Harry's grandson who tells me has wondered over the years what happened to these medals. How they ended up on eBay is a mystery but thanks to Keith and Phil the medals are now on their way back to Harry's family.

The returned medal tally is now 2946.

WWII RAAF medals

Albert Jasper Carter served in the RAAF during WWII as a guard. Prior to the war Albert was employed by Associated Newspaper Ltd as a publisher.

He returned to the Sun newspaper after he was demobilised but, unfortunately, died in March 1953.

These items came to me from Ivan at the NSW RSL HQ. Along with the 19939-45 Star and the Pacific Star, is Danny's Returned From Active Service Badge and an identity disc.

The returned medal tally is 2944.

WWI identify disc

Over the years I have had a wonderful collaboration with Philippe Clerbout from France. The original connection was through our recently deceased friend Sandra. The most notable work Philippe and I completed was to return a WWI identity disk found on the Western Front. This story is somewhat similar.

Today Philippe sent me a picture of the identify disc worn by LTCOL William Llewellyn Arrell DSO which had been found at the Fruges region, Pas de Calais.

Before WWI, William was a teacher and served in the cadet system. He was commissioned into the 9th Battalion, AIF in March 1915. He wasn't at the Gallipoli landings on 25 Apr 15 but arrived shortly after. A letter he sent from Gallipoli was published in the news paper and I've added it below. 

William, was promoted on several occasions and spent a long period with 49th Battalion before taking command of the 14th Battalion. For his service, William was made a member of the Distinguished Service Order and mentioned in dispatches twice. 

Following the war, William returned to the Queensland Education Department on the examination board. He appeared in the news paper again when his brother in law drowned in the surf. This story is also included below.

William, never married and died in 1944.

William was one of 13 children and it is through his brother, John's family line, I've contacted William's great nephew. The identity disc will be returned to the Arrell family in the near future.

The returned medal tally is now 2940.

Letter from the front:

Story of drowning:

WWII POW

This group of four medals does little to tell the story of NX29241 Staff Sergeant Jack Powell. Even his service record is thin on detail about the key entry which says 'Prisoner of War'. The AWM has this entry which indicates he was held in Malaya. There are a few mentions of Jack in the list of POWs as they progressed through Singapore then returned to Australia.

Jack's medals came to me from Barbara S and between us we established a family tree for Jack which provided us the names of his children and grand children. Barbara located the address of one of Jack's grandson's and I have recently sent him the medals.

The returned medal tally is now 2939.

Australian Defence Medal for service in the Vietnam War era

Quite a bit of mental gymnastics were needed to get to a solution with this search. 

This Australian Defence Medal came to me via the wonderful team at the Joint Military Police Station - Sydney. LS EB was handed this medal on Anzac Day from a member of the public with a request for the medal to be returned. 

The ADM was awarded to A111905  PB Carey. All I could determine from these details was that Carey was in the RAAF and from Queensland. This is determined by the A (Airman) and 1 (Queensland). Unfortunately, I was unable to find any clues as to what the initials PB stood for. His name or number isn't on Trove or the Vietnam War and Nasho's nominal rolls. Other research resources like BDM records and death notices provided any clues.

The more I searched the more I ended up going around in circles. My first thought tangent was to narrow down the time period Carey served. I found the individual with the service number immediately after Carey's served during the Vietnam War. From this I concluded Carey had enlisted in the late 1960s. 

To my surprise there are a large number of people named Carey in the Australian Electoral rolls. Not having the full name caused several hours of scrolling through Ancestry elimination names like Peter or Paul. Eventually I got to Patrick and found a Patrick Bernard. There is one electoral roll entry from 1968 listing Patrick Bernard Carey with a residential address at RAAF Townsville.    

This had to be my man but after 1968 the leads got messy again. From 1972 onwards there are two separate men by this name in the electoral rolls; one living in Sydney the other in Melbourne. There was no way to determine who was who. The Sydney based Patrick died in 2016. The death notices indicated he was an academic and had died in the UK but there was no mention of RAAF service.

I sent a message to the tree owner and this was the correct PB Carey I was looking for. Partrick's widow and children are still alive, I'll post them the medal in the near future. 

Thank you to LS EB. Also, thank you to Bill F, Patrick's first cousin who has connected me with Patrick's family. 

The returned medal tally is now 2935.

International Force East Timor medal

I'm sure this story will strike a cord with my RAInf friends.

Jason Lindgren was a rifleman with  2 RAR when his battalion deployed to East Timor in September 1999. He discharged in the early 2010s. What is significant about this family is that Jason's father also served in the Royal Australian Regiment, as has his four brothers. Sadly, Jason died in September 2023.

Somehow, Jason's INTEFET medal, along with some other personal items, became lost in the mail. The medal eventually found its way to me. It was a bit of a circuitous route to find Jason's brother who put me in touch with his father.

I spoke to Mr Lindgren this morning and it is going to be such a pleasure to post this medal back to Jason's family.  

The returned medal tally is now 2934.

Early WWII enlistee

As soon as I saw service number of this solider, it didn't surprise me the reverse of stars in this medal group were un-named. Individuals who enlisted in the early months of WWII were awarded the stars they were entitled as soon as they became available. The stars did not include the service details on the reverse. However, the medals were named on issue. Following WWII, the soldiers who received the un-named medals were offered the choice to retain their stars as they were or return them and have their service details impressed. 

These five medals were awarded to QX196 Thomas Foster. A very early enlistee from Queensland. 

When he enlisted Thomas was married to Ivy Evelyn (nee Raper) and his service records they had two children. Thomas died in 1966 and Ivy in the 1989.

Their daughter was Ivy June who married Henry Ivan Tebbutt. This is a reasonably uncommon surname and I quickly found this family on several Ancestry tree. One of the children is named Grant but I just couldn't find his contact details. I sent a message one tree owner who kindle passed my request to Sharyn, a cousin of Grant's. Sharyn gave me some great family history background. She also made a comment that she recalled Grant worked for Defence. This was the clue I needed. I was able to track down Grant and we spoke today. The Tebbutt family has a strong history of service to Australia. Grant's father was a located at Gallipoli Barracks during WWII as part of the administration staff  for the POW camp. He then went on to be the Staff Officer Grade 3 Training at1 MD. Grant's uncle Stan was a wireless operator in the RAAF and survived being shot down.

Thank you to Del who sent me the medals. Also, thanks to Amanda, Treval and Sharyn for all your assistance. The returned medal tally is now 2938.

 

Jackie Trotter post 2

Shortly after I posted the story of Jackie Trotter, I received an message from Dan J which read:

Hi Glyn, Great story about Trotter. I have his 1939-45 War Medal if you want to return it to Geoff to go alongside his 1939-45 Star. Thanks, Dan

I have been in contact with Dan for a year or so as I research some other medals he has sent me. I just couldn't believe the coincidence that he had read a story I posted and had another medal to the same solider.  

This medal, along with Trotter's 1939-45 Star, will soon be sent to his nephew Geoff. 

The returned medal tally is now 2933.

Jackie Trotter

I recently received a message from Neil L a retired Royal Australian Navy veteran who had several medals he was keen to have returned to families. Neil sent me the medals and this is the first return.

This 1939-45 Star was awarded to VX139799 John William Trotter. My research led me to an Ancestry family tree and within 12 hours of sending a message to the tree owner I was speaking to John's nephew, Geoff. Since that discussion, Geoff has kindly sent me two photos. The first is of John, known as Jackie, as a boy and the second is a description of Jackie's war service which has far more detail than I could distill from his service record.  

After the war, Jackie married Thelma and they settled in South Australia. Jackie died on 21 Dec 67.

Geoff has maintained a connection with Jackie's unit association and he will have Jackie's medal in time for this year's Anzac Day parade.

The returned medal tally is now 2932.