Frederick Rankin

Another medal out of the Grafton box is the British War Medal awarded to 2864 Frederick John Rankin, 42 Battalion, AIF. The first thing I noticed was that there was a mistake with the naming. The middle initial is impressed as 'K' rather than 'J'. Although mistakes are not unknown I don't come across medals with errors to often. The initials 'F.K.' can be seen in the picture of the naming. 
Rankin was in his early 30s when he enlisted. He gave his NOK as his sister Bertha. In 1920 he married Ellen May Randles but that didn't have any children. Rankin died in 1951 and Ellen in 1959. I found a picture of their headstone which is included below.
Given that Rankin nominated his sister, Bertha, as his NOK I followed that branch of the family. I found Bertha on a family tree which belongs to the wife of Berth's great grandson. The message I sent was soon answered and within an hour of starting this search I had the address to send Rankin's medal to.
The returned medal tally is now 2259.

  

New Zealand WWII medals

Medals awarded to New Zealand WWII soldiers don't come my way often. When they do it is usually because the soldier immigrated to Australia some time after WWII. This is the case with 24495 Frank Gaywood Eades.
Frank's medals came to me from the Albury RSL. The President of this sub-branch is a friend of mine and sent the medals to me with limited background information. I could follow Frank in the electoral rolls from the 1950s to the 1970. The only real lead I could follow was another name at the same address which I assumed to be Frank's son. Searching this name opened up what I believe to be the story of how the medal came to be sent to the RSL.
I found Frank's son's death notice from earlier this year in Alubry. It became immediately apparent that this gentlemen had lived in a care facility for more than 30 years. The medals came with the contact details of Frank's brother in New Zealand but these were no longer current. I surmised that after the death the care facility tried to call the family and when they had no luck sent the medals to the Albury RSL.
It took a bit to navigate the New Zealand records and indeed that branch of the family had moved on. As a last resort I used Face Book to message Frank's nephew and after a few days was talking to Mark and will send him the medals in the near future.
The returned medal tally is now 2258.

Percy Foley 11LHR and 11 FAB

The last series of medals I've been researching, all from the Grafton Box, have provided more than the usual amount of challenges. This search was no different with the problem this time being the name the soldier enlisted under.
The National Archives of Australia lists that 1180 Trooper Percy Joseph Foley served in the 11th Light Horse Regiment. However, not long after arriving in Egypt he transferred to 11th Field Artillery Brigade. This meant that his regimental number changed to 1180a causing a bit more confusion in the research. Percy had a pretty interesting war going AWOL on numerous occasions as well as being wounded in action. When he returned to Australia he first lived in his home town of  Grafton, then moved to Sydney were he was married to Nellie but later moved back to Grafton. Percy died in 1951 having not had any children. Then the trouble for me started.
Percy appeared in the public records from 1915 through to 1936. There was no sign of him before or after this time window. It took a bit of time to work out that Percy was born Pierce Joseph Foley and later in life used Pierce rather than Percy.
Typical of the time, Percy had numerous siblings, several who died as infants, didn't marry or had no children. One sister who I could follow through the records was Sarah Jane Foley who married Charles Sare. One of their sons was Harold Hunter Sare who died aged 29 at Coffs Harbour. The local paper reported the death and mentioned that Harold had two young sons name Max and Rex. This information made it pretty easy to narrow the search for one of Percy's great nephews. I now know that Harold's youngest son, Rex, was just six months old when his father died. I'll be sending Percy's 1914-15 Star and Victory Medal to Rex in the near future. Where the British War Medal is from this trio is anyone's guess.
The returned medal tally is now 2250.

Eric Gray

The next set of medals out of the Grafton Box are the WWI pair awarded to 5584 PTE Eric Arthur Gray. The Grays were one of the early pioneer families around the Lismore area of NSW. This meant that I was able to find quite a bit of information about Eric's father John James Gray. However, tracing the family through the 1940s to 1960s was a little difficult.
Eric was married to Nellie but I can find no evidence that they had any children. This forced me to look at Eric's siblings and thanks to John's obituary following his death in 1934, I had all the names I needed. The brother I followed was Moses Caleb Gray who I now know served with Eric in the 25th Battalion, AIF. Moses diary from a year of his service during WWI is still in the family.
At this point the search became a little more complicated. Moses' daughter married Rolland, known as Rolly, but finding the names of the current generation alluded me for a while. It wasn't until I found a picture of Rolly's headstone which included the names of his children that the last piece fell into place. I've just spoken to Eric's great nephew, David, who was able to fill in the blanks for me about Moses and told be about his diary.
David has been wearing replica medals on Anzac Day in honour of Moses and now will have Eric's original WWI pair to wear as well.
The returned medal tally is now 2248.

Alfred Gillett

Trying to align some family trees with public records is often difficult. That was definitely the case with 1854 PTE Alfred Gillett who served in the 1st Pioneer Battalion.
Alfred didn't do me any favours by lying about his age when he enlisted. It wasn't until I found this obituary that I realised that he put his age down by eight years in order to enlist that it all came together.

The obituary tells the story of Albert's life and confirms that he enlisted at the age of 52 and not 44 as his service record states. It is through his brother Henry that I followed the family line to the current generation and I'll return the medal to them shortly.
This is another of the medals that were sent to me by the Grafton RSL. The returned medal tally is now 2246.

WWI POW

Bill's persistence really paid off with this return.

It is nearly ten years since ‘Robert’ bought a set of WW1 medals impressed to 1423 PTE Private George Chioman, RWR. The source was a deceased estate auction in Victor Harbour, South Australia.

From his research Robert believed the medals may have come to Victor Harbour via Queensland. In the end he posted an advert in the ‘Found Medals’ Section of ‘Vetaffairs', the magazine published by the Department of Veteran Affairs. It was there that I saw his request for help. This is where my part of the story begins.

While the 1423 regimental number was compatible with the Australian numbering scheme used during the First World War, it was the RWR that directed me to the United Kingdom. This led me to find the medal card of Private George Chipman, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

With the aid of Jenn from the Australian Genealogical Surname Group, we were able to track forward to George’s grandson, Stephen, who still lives in England. .

George Chipman, who died in England in 1961, had an eventful war. He was taken prisoner in 1917, and saw out the last years of the war as a POW in Munster, Weestfalen, Germany. To say that Stephen was astounded to get a call from Australia, is putting it mildly.

As to how George’s medals got to Australia, that is another story.

It is an amazing co-incidence that, as we were contacting Stephen, he received another email from a lady who had come into possession of a POW post card, that George had written to his brother, Albert along with a photo that she believed to be George. Out of respect to George’s family we have refrained from posting the photo. However, the post card is in itself a snapshot of history.

Perhaps I should close with the email that Robert sent to Stephen. It says it all:

Hello Stephen

My name is Robert xxxx I live in a town called Victor Harbor, a coastal town 80k South of Adelaide, South Australia.

About 10 years ago I purchased a set of WW1 medals at a deceased estate in Victor Harbor. 

There is a slight possibility these Medals may have found their way down from Queensland (Aust).

I tried on many occasions to find a relative to hand over the Medals, but had no luck searching Aust Archives.

I posted a “found Medals ad”, in a paper published by Aust Veteran Affairs. 

I was soon contacted by a Military history/research group who were prepared to take up the search on my behalf.

They had access to records world wide, and soon came up with a “hit”.

The rest is, as they say, history.

Whilst this search was going on I was contacted by another WW1 Veteran’s family who said, the Service number is the same as our Grand Fathers!

It seems the British and Aust Government used the same numbering system during WW1, hence the duplication of numbers.

I am a Vietnam Veteran, my Father a WW2 Veteran and my Grand Father a WW1 Veteran.

My, and my families Medals are very precious to me.

So, would you like me to post the Medals to you, it would be my pleasure.

Their was a huge amount of time and effort put into tracking the rightful owners, we both owe the “team” A HUGE THANKS AND WELL DONE!

Regards

Robert 

The returned medal tally is now 2245.

 

Trooper Tom Barnes - Australian Horse.

This Queen's South Africa Medal came to me recently as part of a box of medal forwarded by the Grafton RSL Sub-Branch.
Most of the information I could find about Trooper Thomas Walter Barnes was from newspaper articles available from the National Archives of Australia web site - Trove. I've added two of the most interesting articles below.
The official record shows that Barnes had the regimental number '5' and served in the Australian Horse. However, the medal gives his number as '8'. It is most likely that the medal is incorrect.
Barnes was born in 1875 and spent his early years around Murrumburrah, NSW. He belonged to the Murrumburrah detachment that made up the Australian Horse contingent. Barnes had two daughters but I've been unable to establish if either had children of their own. He died in Gladesville, NSW in 1937.
I found Barnes included on an Ancestry family tree which is owned by Barnes' great nephew. It is to this family I'll return the medal to in the near future.
The articles are really interesting, especially the comments about Barnes' horse and reference to Banjo Paterson.
The returned medal tally is now 2242.

 

A new NSW box

Long term visitors may remember the excitement over the NSW RSL box of medal that came my way some years ago. A recent arrival from the Grafton RSL Sub-Branch was a box of medals awarded to 14 different veterans ranging from the Boer War to the Korean War. Most impressive is a WWI Military Medal. I have one result already and will post the story shortly.

Ray Curtis and the Battle of Coral

Lost items come to us through the most unusual sets of circumstances. This all started with an email from a friend of mine and fellow officer, Leo M. He had purchased an old army trunk from a recycle center and inside found an identity disc belonging to 214950 R G Curtis.
A bit of research showed that Ray Curtis was a Platoon Sergeant in 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment at the time of the Battle of Coral. This link is to a picture on the Australian War Memorial website which shows Ray inspecting a captured weapon following the battle.
Finding Ray's contact details proved a little difficult to find so I used the 1 RAR network to get a message through to him. I am very grateful that my email passed through several supportive former battalion members, including jcal, to reach Ray.
Today I connected Ray and Leo so that a return can be arranged.
The returned medal tally is now 2241.

Fromelles KIA part 2

Bill and I get numerous requests to find medals that have been lost for many years or known to have been sold in the past. This is an almost impossible task. However, Bill has achieved the impossible.

For those of you who follow this Blog, you would be quite used to Glyn and I receiving medals then going looking for either, the recipient, or a next of kin. This story goes the other way.

It is a story that has been two years in the making and it came in two parts; this is part 2.

If I take you back to 1^st July 2016 and the story of the search for the Death Plaque of 1707 Pte Cyril David Jones, who was Killed in Action at Fromelles on the 20 July 1916, I introduced you to Lee his great niece and her search for the plaque and medals of her great Uncle. 
This is the continuation of that story. When I returned the plaque to Lee, her final words, after her profuse thanks, were of the order: ‘do you think you’ll ever find the medals?” My answer, the only one I could honestly give her, was “I don’t know, I just don’t know”. 
However, I added Cyril’s name to my weekend Internet search roster. 
Shortly after returning Cyril’s Plaque, I was approached by the new memorabilia officer of the RSL Club that had been given Cyril’s plaque and medals in 1972. He asked me would I complete the lists that I had started on several years before, a request to which I agreed. This was for two reasons, the first that I had no luck blind searching on the internet. Secondly it allowed me to search much more thoroughly the club and its environs than I had before. 
My first step was to make up a list of any and all of the retirement homes within a 5 Km radius of the club, homes whether they were associated with the RSL or not, but where someone from the club may have in the past set up a display. Then came the follow on phone calls, to which the answers varied from “No we have no RSL stuff here” to “Yes, we do”. It soon appeared that at some time in the past, the club’s previous memorabilia officer had a very large list of homes that he and his wife would regularly visit changing over the display to match up with various military campaigns that Australian forces had been involved in. Usually the comments received digressed to the fact that he had not been for quite some time, almost two years, in fact, which aligned with his passing.  And so started my visit program. 
It is now two weeks since I rang Lee, asked her to sit down, and told her I had found Cyril’s medals. They were in a plastic shopping bag at the back of a display cabinet. Last Saturday I had the privilege of returning Cyril’s medals to his family.

This has, as I said above, been along search, nearly two years in fact. I do not think I would ever like to do it again. If Cyril had not been one of the fallen at Fromelles, had I not got involved in the search for the NOK of the fallen, met Sandra Playle and Tim Lycett and some truly fine Australians, I don’t know if I would have had the determination to keep going.

Sandra and Tim have been friends of mine for many years, this is another wonderful connection to the amazing research they have done.

The returned medal tally is now 2240.

An Australian Defence Medal returned

More and more, medals are coming to us from the Police after they have been recovered following a suspected theft.
Recently, the South Australian Police located an Australian Defence Medal and an 'I am an Australian Soldier' medallion in a car and the driver's name didn't match the name on the ADM. Constable Ben S sent an email to the South Australian RSL requesting assistance and this email was forwarded to me.
The ADM had the soldier's employee number, initials and name but the medallion had his full name. I used this information to find him on Face Book and discovered that we have a mutual friend. I fired of a message asking for Constable Ben's contact details to be passed on and left it at that. Today I have received word that the solider has been in contact with SAPOL. Very soon his ADM and medallion will be sent home.
Thanks to Nathan K from RSL Care in SA and Brad C for your assistance.
The returned medal tally is now 2238.

Patrick Fendlen

The search for 4907 Patrick James Fendlen of the 53rd Battalion, AIF, started with an email from Terry M who had come across Patrick's British War Medal amongst his father's WWII medals.
The search for Patrick was some what difficult as his name was sometimes spelt with an 'i' in place of the second 'e'. Once I worked out that he lied about his age to enlist the pieces started to fall in to place.
He was born in 1870 making him 44 when he enlisted but stated his age as 34. He was married to Rachel but this was her second marriage and she already had four children. Rachel died while Patrick was still serving in France although he was returned to Australia for health reasons not long after.
In Patrick's service record there is a letter from his brother saying that there was no children from the marriage to Rachel and I couldn't find any connection between Patrick and Rachel's children after she died.
Patrick later married Mary Sayer, however, that marriage didn't last long as in 1920 a warrant was issued for Patrick's arrest for the desertion of Mary. The warrant gave his age as 54 which verified my calculations about him lying about  his age on enlistment. Patrick spent time in Darlinghurst prison and died in 1937. 
I've tracked down a distant relative who is also the family historian and he will hold the medal until a closer relative is found if this is possible.
It was great to connect Terry and Wayne about Patrick's medal and provide them both with addition details about Patrick. Although, how his medal came in to Terry's father's possession remains a mystery.
The returned medal tally is now 2236.

Henry Agnew.

This search started with an email from LCDR Tim C from the Royal Australian Navy who had received the Australian Service Medal 1939-45 awarded to 19669 Henry Norman Agnew, RAN. The circumstances how Tim received the medal was slightly strange but I have heard similar stories before.
The medal was sent to Tim by the daughter of Norman Andrew Agnew who had found Henry's medal mixed in with Norman's medals. Very kindly, she wanted to see Henry's medal with the right family. It is easy to see how the mix up occurred when the medals were originally dispatched. Although, I do wonder where Norman's ASM is?
The search for Henry's family proved rather tricky. There were only a few mentions of Henry in public records. These include his WWII RAN service card, which really provided no usable information, a date of death and two electoral roll entries. From the electoral roll I knew he lived in Gundagai in the late 1950s and his wife was Victoria Gladys Agnew. I found Victoria's headstone which confirmed she died in 1990 and with no children mentioned I had to assume there was no direct descendant.
It was the link to Gundagai that cracked this search open. The NSW BDM entry for Henry's death in Gundagai gave me his parent's names, Albert Frederick and Amelia Elizabeth. Using this data in the births search page I found the name of Henry's sister, Bronwen. After that is was easy. Albert, Amelia and Bronwen appear in an Ancestry family tree owned by Bronwen's grandson Gary. This makes Gary, Henry's great nephew. 
I've now connected Tim and Gary and the medal will soon be returned to Henry's family.
The returned medal tally is now 2235.

Two more medals returned

Two great results by Bill, but......

By now regular readers of our blog are, as they often comment, fascinated by the research, let alone the time that goes into returning medals. However, I must admit nothing seems to annoy (if that is the right word) them is when Glyn and I merely report that ‘the medals have been returned’.

Of the following two returns, one involved the recipients family, while the other the Victorian Police. In one case we have chosen to respect the privacy of a family, in the other a series of outstanding matters, preclude our commenting.

However Leslie’s family can thank Jaunita at Rosebud RSL. While Stephen can, if he hasn’t already done so, can thank Sergeant Rhian Kelly of the South Melbourne Police Station.

The returned medal tally is now 2234.

Norman Faulks

Another collaboration with Gavin G of Brisbane to return a dog tag that he found. This time it belonged to  VX110377 Norman William Faulks.
The returned medal tally is now 2232.

Albert Parkin

I've recently been in contact with Gavin G of Brisbane who, over the years, has found several dog tags while metal detecting. I've looked at three different tags so far and we have one result, one pending result and one difficult search.
The one result is the dog tag of Albert Victor Parkin.  
The returned medal tally is now 2231.

Stanley Burke

We are often asked to locate medals that have been stolen or lost over the years. This is almost impossible as there is know way of knowing where the medals might now be. All we can offer is to keep the details on record in the very slim chance the medals might just come our way. That slim chance recently happened for Bill. And all done in 5 hours.

As I started to write up my notes about the search for the family of 58605 Leading Aircraftman Stanley John Burke I found myself intrigued by three things. Firstly, being born on the 3^rd June 1924 and enlisting on the 22^nd June 1942, Stan was only 18 years and 19 days old. It must have taken some persuasion for Stan to get his mother to sign his enlistment papers. Almost as much as it probably took to convince the Postmaster General’s Department (PMG) to release a Junior telegraph mechanic in training, so he could enlist in the RAAF. The third thing was a realisation that I had spoken to Stan’s daughter in 2014 when she told me that her father’s medals had been stolen and what advice could I give her. As it worked out I didn’t give her any advice, just the medals.

But a search is not always the effort of one person, it is in fact the sum of many contributions. Sheryl from the Avondale Police Station property office, Jan of the Banyule City Council and the Australian War Graves staff.

The returned medal tally is 2230.

now 

Australia Remembers podcast

This podcast has some great information about the 100 Victoria Crosses awarded to Australians.

https://australiaremembers.net/

ANMEF trio

Bill's latest success.

The last four years has seen major battles showcased as part of the 100th anniversary of WWI. Perhaps it is only fitting that this story goes back to not only Australia’s, but also the Allies, first successful military campaign of the War.

Back to the 18^th August 1914 when the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF), a small volunteer force, marched through Sydney prior to embarkation for New Guinea, where they were tasked to seize and destroy German wireless stations in German New Guinea.
O/N 7351 AB John Searson Cantwell RAN, was one of the marchers that made up that contingent.

It is also fitting that John’s medals should come from Tony, a retired Lieutenant Commander, who while dropping off his own medals to be mounted, saw John’s medals for sale and purchased them.
I first became acquainted with Tony through the ‘VetAffairs’ magazine. Tonight I sent off an email whose introduction said it all “Tony meet Lachlan, Lachlan meet Tony”. At that point I bailed out leaving it to the two to get together so that the medals can be returned to John’s family.

John along with other members of the contingent returned to Australia victorious in January 1915, then on the 15^th March 1915, they marched from Circular Quay to Victoria Barracks. Sadly John was  killed as a result of a motor accident and passed away without marrying.

The pictures are of John's WWI trio and of the ANMEF marching through Sydney.

The returned medal tally is now 2226.

Anniversary of National Service Medal

Another success story from Bill.

Recently I received an Anniversary of National Service Medal from the Victorian police. This in itself is nothing new. What was, however, was the phone call I received 6 days prior.

According to the Police Constable who rang me, the medal had two numbers on it, 

firstly 31xxxxx and secondly, VO571. The impression was faint so he was not sure.

Well the first number 31xxxxx initially had me stumped, until I realized it was a CMF Regimental Number. It would later transpire that the owner of the medal had already completed 2 years military service in the CMF when his birth date was drawn in the National Service Call-Up. He took the option then available to serving CMF members who had completed two years service of staying in the CMF for a further three years. Thus being eligible for the Anniversary of National Service Medal.

The second number, well there was no second number. With the aid of a torch and an extremely powerful magnifying glass, it was a different story. If I was to say the 5 was actually an ‘S’ I will leave it to readers to work it out. No prizes will be given.

The returned medal tally is now 2223. 

Harry Jenkins

This search commenced with an email from Julie T which said:


"Whilst cleaning my parents home I have found some medals & war service records of my parents old next door neighbour, from WW11, he died in 1993 and his wife died a few years after that, I don't know how they have come to be here, I want to reunite these items with his remaining family".
The medals were awarded to NX25083 Henry (Harry) Oswald Jenkins and with this name combination it was rather easy to find all the basic information I needed about him. From Harry's death notice I found that he had two sons, one named Ross, however, a search for R Jenkins in NSW threw up over 1000 hits. Thinking that this was going to be a difficult search I begrudgingly scrolled down the electoral roll entries and to my surprise the 1980 roll listed a Ross Oswald Jenkins. This was to much of a coincidence to let pass. It was also a bit lucky as the 1980 rolls are the last that are available on Ancestry.
It didn't take long to locate where Ross lived but finding away to contact him proved more difficult. It turned out that through Face Book Messenger and a Men's Shed that Ross is a member of, Julie and I were able to get in touch. Ross collected his father's medals today. 
What I thought was going to be a difficult search turned out to be quite simple and only took about two hours before I had all the information required to narrow down where Ross lived and make some educated guesses about how to contact him.
The returned medal tally is now 2222.

 

William Luxmoore

Each of our successful returns is remarkable in one way or another, however, finalising this one on Anzac Day is extra special.
The search began with a referral via the South Australian Genealogy Facebook page. Janine's father found a WWI British War Medal in an incinerator over 50 years ago and she now wanted it back with the family. The medal was awarded to 3479 William Clarence Luxmoore, 9th Light Horse Regiment. There was some initial confusion in the search as the records alternate between the surname spelling of Luxmore and Luxmoore. William was from a well known South Australian family. He didn't marry and died in 1924 aged just 31.  

The search then shifted to William's siblings as well as shifting states. It also took a very unexpected turn.
William's parents, a brother and sister moved to the Northern Beaches of Sydney. I found the death notice of William's brother Frederick, however, no children were mentioned. What was interesting was that their sister Winfreda is referred to as Lady Freda Ashton.

Freda's first husband was married to Ernest Hoggard in 1927. She was widowed in 1955 not having had any children. 

In 1961 Freda married artist, Sir William Ashton. Will died in 1963.

That is not where the story of Lady Freda ends and it is probably as infamous as Will Ashton was famous. In the late 1980s, Sydney was gripped in terror due to the murder of six elderly women. The serial killer was John Glover and his second victim was Lady Freda. Glover was dubbed the Granny Killer.
The Sydney leads ran out so I went back to William's other bother James who lived on Kangaroo Island. South Australian public records are the most difficult to access but I worked out the names of James' daughter and grand daughter. What I couldn't establish was William's great niece's current contact detail. Luckily, through Janine's initial post the great niece made contact and arrangements are being made to return the medal. A fantastic result on Anzac Day.

The returned medal tally is now 2217.

Jack Ghilks

This search took me back and forth to Great Britain on several occasions.
It started with an email from Chris S who had a WWII group awarded to NX65631 John Henry Ghilks. With such an usual surname I thought finding a relative would be straight forward. That is where I went wrong.
I came upon the odd reference to Ghilks but other than the basic information he was a bit elusive. This article from 1942 is one example.

His headstone caused a bit more confusion until I established that Alice was his second wife and finally the Australian end of the search was finished. Ghilks went by the name Jack. He was an auctioneer and antique collector. He emigrated to Australia in the early 1930s then moved from Leeton to Bathurst and finally the Gold Coast where he died in 1983.

Along the way he purchased and restored the 19th century Bathurst mansion 'Woolstone'. Unfortunately, Jack didn't have any children for me to trace down so I went looking for his siblings. The search was then redirect to England where I found a person by the name Ghilks living in the same small village that Jack was from. While a link existed I was redirected down another path and eventually contacted Jim B whose wife is related to the Ghilks family. Jim kindly put me in in touch with Andrew who is Jack's great nephew. Andrew emigrated to Australia in 1974 so the search has come full circle.

The returned medal tally is now 2216.

 

Walter Hogg

It is becoming more common that medals that have been found are being posted on social medal with a request to find the family. Many of these request are either shared with me or the poster is referred to me. That is exactly how I became involved in the search for the family of 591 Walter James Hogg.
Bernice M posted the picture of Walter Hogg's WWI medals on a lost items page which was shared with me and Bernice also sent me a message.
Walter was born in 1987 in Broken Hill. The service record gives his occupation as salesman. After WWI Walter married Pheobe but they didn't have any children. Walter died in 1941 so the search moved to his siblings.
Walter had four brothers, one who died as an infant, and a sister. Following the family lines of the brothers all resulted in dead ends, however, his sister Muriel was included on an Ancestry family tree. The tree owner turned out to be Muriel's great grand daughter.
I've now put Bernice and Walter's great grand niece, Charlotte in so the medals can be returned.
The returned medal tally is now 2211.

Oscar Gill

This search took an unexpected turn when I made an educated guess based on a name I found on Ancestry.
It all started two days ago when I received an email from Andrew M who, for the last 20 years, had in his possession the 1914/15 Star awarded to 2368 Oscar Edward Gill. Andrew had been given the medal after it was found by a friend while metal detecting at a beach.
Finding Oscar was an easy task as well as discovering that his brother 944 Norman Thomas Gill was killed in action. Norman was KIA on 20 September 1917 at Polygon Wood. Norman has no know grave and is commemorated at Menin Gate.
Following WWI, Oscar married Evelyn Thompson and had a son, Norman Herbert Gill. Norman was married to Mary but I couldn't find evidence that they had any children. I then moved to Oscar's siblings but there appeared to be no continuous family line that I could follow. In an effort to find a new clue I went backwards to Oscar's parents. It was then that I found a private family tree on Ancestry which included Oscar's parents and to my surprise the tree owner's name is Neil Gill. This was to much of a coincidence for me so based on that educated guess, I fired of a message to Neil.
As it transpires, Neil runs his own genealogy research business. He has done extensive research on his own family and is related to Oscar. He also found that Norman and Mary did have children but the circumstances meant that the family dispersed over the years.
The timing couldn't be better as the Gill family has a reunion planned for later in 2018. I've connected Andrew and Neil and will leave them to decide the best method of return of this medal to the Gill family and how this might be incorporated in to the reunion.
The returned medal tally is now 2209.

 

Ray Piggott

Yesterday I received an email from Louise asking me to research two WWI medals that she had found in a house she recently move in to. The medals were awarded to VX82640 Lance Bombardier Raymond Charles Piggott.
Ray died in 2003 but I couldn't find a death notice for him. The only clue I had was from the 1972 Electoral Roll which had showed that a Kenneth Robert Piggott lived at the same address as Ray. I assumed that this was a son. For an hour I was frustrated by not being able to narrow done what happened to Kenneth after 1972. All I found was one reference, along with an email address, to a Ken Piggott. Taking yet another punt I fired off an email to Ken and sure enough I had Ray's son.
The returned medal tally is now 2208.