VX11935 Ernest Reginald Barton

VX11935 Ernest Reginald Barton proved to be a bit difficult to find. There wasn't much details from his service records to work with but this is what Bill and Yuku team pieced together.

Ernest was born at Broken Hill in 1906 and his mother was Florence Edith Hughes. His fathers name is unknown. After her first husband died Florence then Married Henry Edward Charles Bromwich at Broken Hill in 1912. They had one daughter, Mavis Jean, born in Sydney 1918 and died in Mudgee 1973. This makes Mavis the half sister of Ernest. Mavis Jean Bromwich married Alan Cecil Day in 1939 and they had two sons, Richard and Max.

Based on a bit of educated guest work I wrote to the a Max Day in Mudgee and he is the fellow we were looking for. Max is Ernest's closest relative and having spoken to him and his daughter tonight I know these medals are going to be well looked after.

The returned medal tally is now 608.

Sando

LAC Lionel Robins Sando was from South Australia and served in the RAAF during WWII. Like many others her didn't deploy overseas but provided valuable service to the war effort in Australia. His medal entitlement would have been the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945. The pictured medal is his ASM.
The returned medal tally is now 603.

Thank you for your comments

I thought it was well and truly time to thank all those who have put a comment on this blog. I really appreciate the feedback.
Unfortunately, I have also discovered that a few spammers have tried to hijack posts and place comments that lead the reader to suspicious websites. I've removed all these.
Glyn

Long Service and Good Conduct Medal

This medal has proved to be a bit out of the ordinary. It is the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal awarded to 1079 WO1A Arthur Joseph Thomas. The WO1A threw me at first. However, I have found out that there was previously two levels of WO1 based on certain qualifications and the higher (A) received more pay. Thomas was a draftsman in the Royal Australian Engineers which made him eligible for this higher grade.

Getting a lead on Thomas proved difficult. There is no listing for him for either WWI or WWII. One of my researchers, Morris from Queensland, found a record in the NAA and had it digitised for me. This proved to be invaluable. It is the application for Thomas to be commissioned in 1938. One piece of information proved to be the key for this search. Thomas' wife is named in the application (page 16). Her name was Elizabeth Gordon Thomas. While Arthur Joseph Thomas is quite common, the inclusion of Gordon in his wife's name is not. I was quickly able to find her death details. This meant Bill could narrow the search in the death notices and electoral rolls. The death notice gave the name of their daughter which in turn led to her two sons, Peter and John. I've spoken to Thomas' grandson Peter and I'll return the medal shortly.

The returned medal tally is now 602.

VX81773 Reg Day

Last Friday I was contacted by Glenn from Melbourne who had found a medal while demolishing a house. He asked me to start the research and he would send the medal to me. The medal is a WWII star awarded to VX81773 Reginald Francis Day.
I came across a 2001 entry on RootsWeb about Reg and tracked down the writer. Even though the entry was old he was able to provide me some great leads. His mother put me on to another relative who in turn put me in touch with Reg's nephew. Now here comes the best news, Reg is still alive.
I spent some time on the phone to Reg tonight and have arranged for Glenn to return the medal to him.
The returned medal tally is now 601.

When is something lost?

We often have to unravel some very difficult family connections. This one is probably the most difficult. Bill did all the work so I'll let his words tell the story:

'When is something lost? Obviously when you can't find it. But what if the situation is reversed, you found it, but don't know who lost it? And that in a way has been the story of the search for the NOK of 3541 Private Joseph ROBSON.
On his death in August 2008, William George FORBES's daughter was given the task of cleaning out William's 'back room'. Among many items of interest, she found the First World War medals of a Joseph ROBSON. After quite some effort she came to the conclusion that Joseph ROBSON was not a member of the family, so who was he and how did her father get the medals?
It was at this point after a subsequent follow up through the RSL that the problem of Joseph ROBSON landed on my table, or should I say alongside my computer, with the cryptic comments that the daughter "can't find him and neither can we" (the RSL). It's nice to be wanted but when you are often the court of last resort, I'm not sure. Who was Joseph ROBSON, what was his background? So it was YUKKI's turn, and as it is sometime said 'a rum old do it turned out to be', while there were ROBSONs, and in fact quite a few, Joseph and his details from his service papers never quite seemed to gel, there was always something odd about the dates, in particular the disparity in the ages. Then came a different tack, could Joseph have a brother, what if we tried using his mother's name as a search item?
So it was back to Joseph's file and a search using his mothers name, well the name he had given as his mother's was URBIN. Now on his enlistment Joseph gave his mother's name as ROBSON. Later it was changed to URBIN. Using URBIN as a search item brought up the file of Joseph LETHLEAN and a further search of Joseph LETHLEAN brought up a second file also in the name of Joseph LETHLEAN. It was not until some time that the three files finaly interlocked as follows:
1. Joseph LETHLEAN first enlisted in the AIF on the 7/12/1914, using his mother (Agnes URBIN) as his nect of kin, after some time he was discharged medically unfit.
2. He then waited 14 months when he again enlisted, only this time he used the name of a friend, a Mrs ANDERSON, as his NOK. But to no avail for on the 15 August 1916, Joseph was again discharged as medically unfit.
3. On the 24 April 1917, he again attempted to enlist, only this time using the surname ROBSON, his mother's maiden name, with URBIN as his NOK. This time he succeeded, and the 11 May 1917, found him departing for France, where the losses coupled with the failure of conscription at home in Australia, had left the AIF so dangerously short of recruits, that many things for which a person had been rejected earlier, were now overlooked.
The war would not be easy for Joseph, first gassed on the 12 August 1918, and evacuated to hospital, he would again suffer a second gassing 6 weeks later. With the complications of being gassed twice, for Joseph the war was over. Discharged on the 31st March 1919, Joseph ROBSON other than appearing to claim his medals and request a replacement of his discharge papers 'disappeared'.
So now it was a case of following the only certain lead that of the family tree of Joseph LETHLEAN, who died at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in 1951, aged 66. It was from this research that the following story comes.
After his discharge Joseph LETHLEAN is said to have introduce his youngest sister Priscilla to Robert MCDONALD, who later married and established a boarding house in North Melbourne. One of their first boarders was Joesph LETHLEAN, having now discarded the name ROBSON. It was their daughter Flora Irene MCDONALD whose marriage to William FORBES in 1939 that took this story almost to its final conclusion. William's death in 2008 brought to light Joseph ROBSON/LETHLEAN's medals.
Now try sitting down and explaining all that to a young lady who having discovered medals among her father's collectibles has spent nearly two years trying to give them away, only to be told she doesn't have to, they belonged to her family in the first place and have for over 80 years.
There is also another saying I must remember 'pride goeth before a fall', particularly when last November I thought I had finally worked it all out, only to find that the niece I first 'discovered' and persisted in following through to her discovery, was not a niece, in fact she was not even related to the family.
So there ends the story of Joseph ROBSON a man who while not falling into the category of 'never was', certainly led an adventurous life for all that he had.'
Here is a picture of Robson and his medals.

Boer War Medal

I recently received a Queens South Africa Medal awarded to PTE S.Yeardley Cape Medical Staff Corps. I decided to put up a post now rather than wait until the search is resolved as the medal is not one I usually deal with and putting Yeardley's name out on the Internet might pull in some more clues.
Through the British Medal Forum I was provided a link to the Boer War nominal roll that has Yeardley's name although spelt Yardley. I also found the original of this list. Unfortunately neither gave me a clue as to where Yeardley came from. I took a punt and searched the AIF data base and came up with this hit. I got a bit excited when I saw he was an MM winner but nothing linked the S. Yeardley of the Boer War to the S. Yeardley of WWI. So off I went to the Australian Archives and found this record. On the first page was a clue that they might be the same fellow. In answer to the question about previous military service there is the comment; '12 months 21th Field Hospital Anglo Boer War'. This is by no means conclusive but a very strong link.
Making the assumption that they are the same fellow I started searching the NSW BDM as WWI Yeardley was discharged in 2 MD (NSW). Given the clues from the service record I located some details for Samuel Yeardley who married Doris Parr in 1924 and died in 1961. Doris was born in 1891 and died in 1978.
Bill posted all this on Australian Surname Group and they have found some great information. I'm sure that it wont be long until a relative of Yeardley is found and in the mean time here are some pictures of his QSA.

600th medal returned

This WWII group of five awarded to NX161316 Warren McLeod is nothing spectacular. They were awarded to a soldier for two years service from 1943 to 1945. However, 65 years later we will be returning this group to McLeod's sister who is very excited about this. Also the title says it all, this group marks the 600th medal that Lost Medals Australia has returned to a family.

For those interested in difference in naming styles these medals show a couple of differences. The stars are named by burr engraving rather than being impressed. This style is more common for WWII RAAF stars. Also the impressing on the ASM 39-45 is some what softer struck than on the other two medals.

WWI WIA

2136 Frank Hedley Gordon Coomber was an 18 year old grocer from Perth when he enlisted in 1915. He was wounded in action in France in 1916. His service record has some really interesting entries, including a letter from Coomber dated 1963 about an appointment to the Corps of Commissionaires. At some point he moved to Melbourne. His medal came to me from Perth and will be returned to family in Sydney. The returned medal tally is now 595.

News paper article on Teddy McLean

The medal return to Teddy McLean has had several chapters which are detailed in this link. As a result of this return the St George and Sutherland Leader News Paper recently ran an article which tells the last chapter of this story.

WWI KIA

1668 PTE Harold Allen served in 48th Bn with his brother 3650 PTE Clarence Allen. Harold was killed in action in France on 11 Apr 17. There is a series of interesting letters in his service record which talks about his War Medal which will soon be returned to his family.

The returned medal tally is now 594.

WWII RAN War Medal

I thought that the search for PM7923 Frederic Keith Smith would be a difficult one. Such a common surname is difficult to trace unless there are some specific clues available. The WWII service summary didn't help too much and with an enlistment date of January 1945, I thought we would have real problems. Luckily his full RAN record of service was online at the NAA. Although only two pages in total, there was enough to kick off the search.

With this initial information, an uncommon married name for his sister' some lateral thinking and a bit of luck we have located Smith's daughter.

The returned medal tally is now 593.

McLean update

In the entry for Teddy McLean I mentioned that the medal we returned would join other memorial items related to McLean. I've now added a picture of the Memorial Plaque.

Lundberg

7178 PTE Axel Lundberg enlisted in the AIF at the age of 36. Here saw service in France but there is very little detail on his service record. There is more information about the time he was AWOL while travelling back to Australia in 1919.

The medal returned tally is now 592.

Sydney Charles Wood

This WWII group was awarded to NX103270 CPL Sydney Charles Wood. There was not a lot of information available on Wood and it took some effort to locate his family. In the end we located Wood's brother who is also a WWII veteran. Once again through Bill's persistence and the assistance of the Yuku team, another set of lost medals is being returned to the family. I must also acknowledge Tracy B who was concerned about these medals in the first place and wanted then to be returned.

The returned medal count is now 591.

One number - two names

This set of medals are named to Walter Henry Allen Jones, however, the number, SX18489 brings up the record of Robert Allen Jones. There are some similarities here and as it turned out it is the same person. The best news of all is that Walter, who enlisted under the name of Robert, is still alive.

The returned medal tally is now 587.

2561 Stanley Vernon Botting

I recently received the WWI trio awarded to 2561 Stanley Vernon Botting. He was a little difficult to locate on the National Archives as he transferred from 27th Bn to Australian Army Pay Corps so an 'A' was added to his number as was the procedure at the time. His rank also confused me a little as the impressing on the BWM and Victory medals is shows CPL-ER-2. I've not come across this before and will have to do a bit more research to work it out.

Before WWI, Botting worked in the South Australian Electoral Office. It was the history of this office that gave me the best lead. I contacted the author of the paper 'history of the state electoral office', Margaret Macilwain, who provided me with the contact details of Botting's grand daughter. A picture of Botting can be found on page 26.

So, thanks to Margaret, this trio is now on the way back to the family.

Yes the BWM is the wrong way around but this is how it was sent to me.

The returned medal tally is now 583.

4520 Teddy McLean

A little over two years ago I was contacted by Alan Kitchen from the Family and Friends of the First AIF Inc who had obtained the Victory medal of 4520 Teddy Arthur McLean 3rd Bn AIF. McLean died of wounds on 4 Mar 17.
Alan was keen to see this medal returned to the family for the following reasons:

• 'He was wounded in the same action when my Uncle was KIA 2356 T.H.Kitchen .
• He was one of three brothers,
• They lived very near from where my uncle & Dad grew up in Waterloo and possibly went to the same school Cleveland St in Surrey Hills.'

Bill , assisted by the Yuku team, did some extraordinary detective work which led to locating McLean's great nephew, David. When Bill spoke to David it turned out that he had all the other items that are associated with a WWI soldier who died of wounds. He has Teddy's memorial plaque and scroll. A photo of the scroll is below. David also has all the letters that Teddy's brother sent home. David has also provide us with a photo of Teddy.



The returned medal tally is now 580.
The family of Teddy McLean also had his memorial plaque so now all the items have been reunited. (Added 6 Feb 10).

Light Horse Medal to be returned

I have previously posted the details and medal photos of the BWM awarded to 2894 DVR John Walter Fell of the 2nd Light Horse Sig Tp. His service record indicates that he was wounded and spent a bit of time in hospital for a couple of aliments. The search for his family has been difficult due to a broad use of the names John and Walter by the family and fewer children than we would have expected from an originally large family.


The returned medal tally is now 579.

Archibald Williams

This search was a little confusing at first. Even though the medal is impressed with the number 1194, Archibald George Williams service record is under the number 2194, although 1194 is struck out. Williams had an eventful war. He was wounded a couple of time and was charged for several offences. His service record shows that he lost is original medals and obtained a duplicate set. The medal I have is one of his original trio.


The medals returned tally is now 578.

McCarthy

This medal was found in the mid 70s when it was picked up while the finder was mowing his parents front lawn. It was awarded to 2349 PTE John Edward McCarthy who served with 22nd Bn AIF. McCarthy was wounded in 1916 which resulted to him being returned to Australia and discharged in 1917.

The retunred medal tally is now 577.

WWII Nurse

This medal is a WWII Pacific Star awarded to WFX34622 Ruth Margaret Veitch. Ruth saw service in Madang where she was a nurse in the 102 Casualty Clearing Station. She would have been entitled to at least four more medals but where they are is a mystery.
This search was a relatively easy one. I received the medal earlier this week and my initial search indicated that Ruth was originally from a small farming community in WA. The white pages showed that there was only a few people with the same surname in that area so I took a punt and my first call I made was to Ruth's nephew. Total research time was about 10 minutes. Bill and I only wish they were all this easy.
The medals returned tally is now 576.

KIA Fromelles

914 Albert James Roberts was a member of 24th Bn AIF who fought at the Battle of Fromelles in August 1916. He was initially reported as missing and then KIA following a court of inquiry. He has no know grave and is listed on this website.

The Battle of Fromelles has received considerable attention recently with the discovery of an unmarked burial site at Pheasant Wood near Fromelles containing 250 Australian soldiers. The ADF is currently managing a project to re-inter the remains of these soldiers in a proper war graves cemetery. My friends Tim L and Sandra P are also heavily involved in this project, this is their website.

This return is not a medal but the memorial plaque that was presented to families who lost during WWI.

The medal returned tally is now 575.

VX21251 J.L. Russell

VX21251 James Leigh Russell was the son of a prominent early 20th century Melbourne family. Percy Joseph Russell was a solicitor and land owner who served as the Mayor of Hawthorn on several occasions. The legal practice is still running today under the name of Russell Kennedy Pty Ltd.

Although married twice, James had no children of his own so the search was on for a close relative. With help from the great Yuku team Bill has been in contact with a great niece James and the medals will be sent home in the very near future.

I've had these medals for 12 months after they were sent to the Directorate of Honours and Awards and then forwarded to me. This is a great example of the relationship I have with this organisation.

The medal returned tally is now 574.

Web site upate

Over the last few days we have been updating a lot of items associated with Lost Medals Australia. Most notably has been the update of the web site by Scott. The list of medals we are trying to be returned can be found here and is correct as at 1 Jan 2010. Also we have added several new photos and some new links that we find useful with research.
I hope you enjoy these updates.

McFalrane

This is Bill's story so here it is in his words:

'It involves the WW2 medals and the 1945-1975 ASM of George McFARLANE, in fact the ASM has not yet been added to the others.
Robert McFARLANE has spent many years trying and occasionally succeeding in acquiring mementos of his father.
Just imagine his horror, to discover that after an extensive cleanup of the house and the usual discarding of all the old boxes that have been collected over the year, his father's medals which he had carefully collected, were missing.
The question was where?.
Answer is the Salvation Thrift shop in Lilydale where several of the boxes of old clothes ended up, fortunately one of the workers recognised the medals, and after a brief attempt at finding the owner gave up. It was after medals had been through three different sets of hand that they were passed to me on last Friday night, and with help from the 'Yuku Members', War Graves, and Preston Cemetery, I eventually located Robert.
So tonight in Lilydale there is a very relieved man, first that he has his father's medals back and second that many years of searching has not been for nought.'

The medals returned tally is now 570.

Shawman

This WWI British War Medal is being returned to the family of 6578 Fredrick James Shawman . The family name was originally SCHAUMAN but was changed to SHAWMAN around the time of WWI, possibly to remove any link to German heritage. The search has been a little difficult but a lead from super sleuth Tim L put me in touch with a lady who provided me a link to a closer decedent to Shawman. This turned out to be just the person I was looking for and the medal will be sent back this morning.

The medal returned tally is now 564.

This is another example where some of the letters are soft struck. The service number and rank are very deep but the H and W in the surname are quite faint.

N386950 Edward Wilson

N386950 Edward Wilson was one of many Australian WWII servicemen who did not go overseas but provided valuable service during the war years. He number indicates that he was not part of the militia who volunteered to go overseas and it would appear that due to his experience on the land he was employed in that capacity. His unit on discharge was 2 Farm Coy. Based on this is it likely that Wilson would have received the Defence Medal, the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945. It is his Defence Medal that has been sent to me.
The search for Wilson's family was a little difficult, but through the fantastic assistance of the Australian Surname Group, a Wilson family tree was found on the Internet. This led Bill to look at Wilson's siblings, one of which was Albert Wilson who died as a POW in Borneo. Bill eventually tracked down a niece. He was known as 'Ted' to the family and I'll send his Defence Medal to her in the very near future.
The medal returned tally is now 563.

For those who take an interest in different naming styles and variations you can see that the 'E' is lightly struck in comparrison to the rest of the letters.

John McAllister Vincent

In earlier posts I have told the story of some of the more unusual items that we are asked to research and find the family. This particular story is of a memorial plaque erected in honour of a Australian soldier from WWII but later removed. Thanks to the dedication of a small group of people the memory of this soldier will live on.

This is Bill's story so I'll let him tell it:
'His service number VX659, and his date of enlistment the 4th September 1939, the day after the then Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Robert Menzies announced that Australia was now at war with Germany, and John's choice of Service the Medical Corps, the 2/1 Field Ambulance in particular. Tragically John was Killed in Action at Canea, Crete in 1941, and like so many of the young men who fell during the battle John has no known grave. Other than his place in the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll, his only remembrance is his commemoration is on the Wall of Honour at the Athens Memorial, Phaleron Cemetery, Athens, Greece.
But such a memorial was in the future, and too far away for the office staff at Melbourne University, who subscribed to pay for a plaque in his memory. If you consider the size of the office staff at the time, to have lost such a young member must have had a devastating effect upon those remaining.
The plaque was I believe erected in the 1940's, unfortunately with the passage of time, and the retirement of staff, much of the original history has been lost.
But as the Administration offices were rebuilt and later expanded, the plaque was moved, surviving each rebuilding, until 5-6 years ago, when the Raymond Priestly building where the plaque had last resided, was renovated, and a decision was made at the time that it (the plaque) did not fit in with the 'modern pristine white/green foyer'.
At this time fortunately one member of the staff with the help of several building maintenance staff 'rescued' the plaque, it being his intent to trace its history, and if possible contact John's family and perhaps more importantly have the plaque remounted.
For some time now the plaque has as its carer has moved also moved, occupying the space under different desks, as he researched the history of the plaque, unfortunately at the time he was unable to locate the family. It was only just recently with 11th November on the horizon that he again started to search. It was then that he found out the source of his major stumbling block, on the plaque John's name was given as John MacAllister Vincent, but there was no record of such a person having served. It was only with the advent of the new online search program that allows for variations in spelling of names, that he discovered that the Army had recorded John's name as John McAllister Vincent.
It was at this time that he posted of to various friends the story of the search and his problems, one recipient of the email, a member of the Watsonia RSL club, and who himself had retired from the University 5 years ago, contacted me with a request for help, and the rest is as they say history.
To say John's family is happy is an understatement, they always knew of the plaque, but where it had disappeared to, that was the great unknown.
Now the final stage is yet to be set, and the plaque, that friends and colleagues contributed to honour the memory of a brave young man, awaits the final act.'

Well done Bill.

WWI RAN medal

The majority of medals I deal with are those awarded to WWI AIF soldiers. Every now and then something extraordinary comes my way. This week I received the 1914-15 Star awarded to ON2725 ORD SEA Sydney George Burley. The service record details are a lot less than what is available for a soldier but there was enough detail to work out movements around Australia. The next lead I followed was to Burley's son also named Sydney George Burley who served during WWII. Then the trail ran cold.

It was time for the experts to step in and Bill and the Yuki ladies put it all together. From initial contact by the person who donated the medal to me until we contacted the family was two weeks (thank you ladies). The story of Sydney and his medals is full of gaps. It was found in the possession of a chap who died last year, why he had it or how he came by it is anyone's guess. How it left the Burley family is also a mystery. None of that really matters now as I'll be returning the medal to Burley's great grandson who is a serving member of the Australian Army so I know it will be in very good hands.

The medal returned tally is now 562.

Zaltzman - A follow up

The story of the return of two WWII medals to the family of Joseph Zaltzman was posted here on 30 September. As I corresponded with the family they kindly provided me with a couple of photos of Joseph, one of which I posted. I felt a special link by seeing what Joseph looked like.
After our email contact, I sent Joseph's medals to his nephew in Israel and they have arrived safely. I received a great email today that talks about the reaction of the family and I thought I would share just a small part of it to show what receiving these medals back means to the family:

"I told it to my Mom, ...., she is lighting candles once a week for each of the family who passed away, on Monday the day the medals arrived she lighted a candle to his memory, Joseph left Israel at 1937, she was 9 at that time, they were very close at that time, the second time she saw him was around 1960, 23 years after that – she was 32, a big gap to abridge."