Cameron2165 Posted 25 November , 2012 Share Posted 25 November , 2012 Hi All, A short story just to show that missing things do show up sometimes. A very good family friend's Grandfather served in the war and even earned the MM. He was gassed in 1918 and was eventualy discharged and got a SWB. The medals have stayed in the family but the SWB appeared to be lost. Last Christmas I bought a copy SWB and gave it to my friend as a present. I was pleased that she proudly wore it on her coat. This week she was bored and decided to empty out a large box of buttons that had been her Grandmothers. What did she find? Yes, a very tarnished SWB! I have checked and it is her Grandfathers. So if you're looking for something it might be worth looking in a box of buttons! Regards Cam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_hughes Posted 25 November , 2012 Share Posted 25 November , 2012 Agreed Cam, My father's "parchment" service record in the RN was deemed lost (even he didn't know where it was). The RN Records people were only able to produce a postcard-sized summary; and some of the details in that didn't look right either. At least I had his medals and cap tally. Dad died in 1995. About 5 years ago my brother enlisted my aid in lagging the attic (what a job! - I hadn't been up there since the 1970s). But first we had to remove a few odd items...one was an old suitcase, and guess what! Not only the complete service record was inside, but also his "Bluenose Certificate" for crossing the Arctic circle, with his ship nicely named and dated. The dates on the cert. were accurate as well. You never know, do you. Clive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 25 November , 2012 Author Share Posted 25 November , 2012 Hi Clive, Yes, it just shows that you never can tell what might show up. It makes you wonder what is out there waiting to be found. Mmm I might go and have a look in my parents attic, I'm still looking for my G G Uncles 15 Trio! Regards Cam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewood1969 Posted 25 November , 2012 Share Posted 25 November , 2012 I have been looking for my grandfather's medals for the last 17 years, But will keep searching you never know. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 25 November , 2012 Author Share Posted 25 November , 2012 Hi Mick, Just keep looking. Ask all your relatives, they might just be out there. Regards Cam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tharkin56 Posted 25 November , 2012 Share Posted 25 November , 2012 hes a story for you in 2010 I was asked by a gentleman/lady who had known relatives (no daughter or sons) what they could do with his Uncle memorial plaques. I tried donations to museum couldn't get anyone to take them so in the end I was asked If i wanted them, which I duly obliged using them to show children on educational talks etc. Got an e-mail the other day out of blue from a relative going down granny mothers side. The lady can actually remember seeing the plaque on the wall over 60 years ago. Cut along story short it's not rightfully mine I've just been looking after it!!! Will be donated back next week with a whole bunch of family photos.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tharkin56 Posted 25 November , 2012 Share Posted 25 November , 2012 http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2012/06/27/teacher-finds-coventry-soldier-s-medals-92746-31267920/ http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2012/07/19/certificate-awarded-to-coventry-hero-is-unearthed-in-charity-shop-92746-31424230/2/ anymore example cant find where the medals etc were found in a loft. Have you contacted former addresses might be worth a chance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 26 November , 2012 Author Share Posted 26 November , 2012 Hi Trevor, Thanks for the links. It's funny, because my 16 year old daughter volunteers in a Cancer Resarch shop. Every time she goes in I say to her to look out for anything to do with the military. She hasn't found anything yet, but I live in hope. Regards Cam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_hughes Posted 26 November , 2012 Share Posted 26 November , 2012 A while ago on this Forum someone advertised for WW1 info on his family, one of whom had died with the Canadians, and their medals. It was an unusual surname and it rang a bell. After checking, I could tell him that the chap's Memorial Cross was located in an institutional medal collection. They took a picture of it for him, but of course they wouldn't part with it. It seems his family were bombed out during WW2 and medals disappeared about that time! ...and yes, I've found a medal in a charity shop before now too! Clive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 26 November , 2012 Share Posted 26 November , 2012 Shortly before her recent death, my aunt mentioned how sad it made her that her father's (my grandfather's) WW1 medals had inexplicably gone missing - she hadn't found them when clearing out his possessions after his death in 1986, despite she and my uncle hunting everywhere. I rather think that she wanted me or my brother to have them. I had to explain that Grandad gave me his medals six or seven years before his death, when I was a teenager, and I have been carefully looking after them for the last thirty-odd years. So the moral is: someone in the family might know where medals are, but might not know that you are looking. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 26 November , 2012 Author Share Posted 26 November , 2012 I agree William, and I guess some would not want you to know they have them as well Regards Cam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 26 November , 2012 Share Posted 26 November , 2012 I agree William, and I guess some would not want you to know they have them as well Regards Cam. True! I'm also discovering that medals can be a source of feuding in some families: I have a friend with a number of sons/nephews who are each keen to lay their hands on his grandfather's (their great-grandfather's) WW1 medals - he has grounds to believe that all of the young men are liable to sell them (it's a nice 1914 star trio to an NCO in a notable infantry regiment, plus a Military Medal, so they are rather desirable). It all sounds to have begun causing a measure of unpleasantness and friction in the extended family. The solution, although the sons/nephews do not yet know it, is that the group is destined for the regimental museum - the curator has promised that they will go on permanent display (and not into a cardboard box in the basement), because there is an interesting story attached to the award of the gallantry medal. William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMarsdin Posted 26 November , 2012 Share Posted 26 November , 2012 I'm also discovering that medals can be a source of feuding in some families William True. The family is also a reason why medal sets get split: each child getting one etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 26 November , 2012 Author Share Posted 26 November , 2012 I was told that the medals mentioned in my opening post would be left to me. I had to turn that idea down as our family friend does have distant family who might not be to pleased if I ended up with them. We did look at the museum, but couldn't be sure they wouldn't get sold off. So they will go to the family and I shall hope they keep them. Regards Cam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFayers Posted 30 November , 2012 Share Posted 30 November , 2012 After being lost 'to the ether' since his widow's death in the early 1930s, my gg uncle's QSA medal turned-up in a Spink auction earlier this year (I only noticed it in the catalogue by chance). So, yes, never give-up looking! All the best Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinhat47 Posted 1 December , 2012 Share Posted 1 December , 2012 I agree! It's not World War I-related, but my wife's great-grandfather served in France during World War II and we were entrusted with just about all his military ephemera after his wife died in 2007. From his service papers, we saw that he had rated a U.S. Army Good Conduct Medal, and we were pretty disappointed that we hadn't found it in their home. I made a nice little shadow box display of all his badges from the war, but had to buy a copy G.C. Medal to fill it out. Flash forward to two months ago when my wife was looking through the big bin of her great-grandparents photos we've looked through many times, and there was the original medal! We had also since found his original division patch, so now his shadow box has all his original pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 1 December , 2012 Author Share Posted 1 December , 2012 Steve, Matt, Excellent news for you both. Regards Cam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 1 December , 2012 Share Posted 1 December , 2012 I was told that the medals mentioned in my opening post would be left to me. I had to turn that idea down as our family friend does have distant family who might not be to pleased if I ended up with them. We did look at the museum, but couldn't be sure they wouldn't get sold off. So they will go to the family and I shall hope they keep them. Regards Cam If you are interested in retaining the medals and concerned about what might happen to them (sold off/separated etc) I would suggest maybe offering them a more than fair market price together with catalog estimates and see which they prefer. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 2 December , 2012 Author Share Posted 2 December , 2012 Hi Khaki, Good Idea, and worth thinking about. Regards Cam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bingo794 Posted 19 December , 2012 Share Posted 19 December , 2012 It is brilliant when something turns up after years of being lost. I bought a BWM/VM pair from a chap in Liverpool who had bought them in Leeds....the naming was to a chap called ALMOND, a local man to our area in the local battalion of the TF. There was the envelope with them, name and address perfect. The name ALMOND is not common where we live.....though, our local lollipop lady is called Almond. After buying the medals and they appeared in the post, I went to the chippie for lunch and I began talking to her. I asked if the name Gilbert Almond was in her hubbies family...it was, her hubbies Grandfather. I took the medals around to their home. Her hubbie recognised the envelope immediately, the medals too. They had disappeared when the old man died in the 60's though, not sure where to. Family rushed house clearance, sounds about right! He showed me pics of the old boy in his uniform and letters complete with name, rank and number (to confrm!) They were his gongs for sure. He wanted them back badly and I could not bring myself to take them away. I let him have them back at cost. They went around the block a bit to come back. It paid off nicely.......everytime I go into the pub, a pint appears if he is in Cheers DickW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 20 December , 2012 Author Share Posted 20 December , 2012 Well done Dick. Always good to see medals go to the family (if they are going to look after them). Regards Cam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJohnson Posted 20 December , 2012 Share Posted 20 December , 2012 Ancestry.co.uk has a facility to search Family Trees that folks have posted which can be useful. I have an SWB that I bought from ebay just because it seemed a cheap price, don't know why as I don't collect. Lesson: don't browse ebay after a glass or two of red wine. I looked up the SWB number on ancestry which gives his name & number, luckily his Soldier's papers survived. I then used the unusual name on Ancestry's 'Public Member Trees' and found that the gt nephew of this man ( a tunneller who suffered from shell-shock) had posted a family tree. He can remember this man towards the end of his life. The outcome is that I am going to send this man his gt-uncle's SWB, going back to his family where it belongs. Andy Late thought: I hope it wasn't him who sold it in the first place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bingo794 Posted 20 December , 2012 Share Posted 20 December , 2012 Cam As an avid Lincolnshire WW1/Boer War collector, it was a bit of a first to find someone so close to home. It just seemed right. He had all manner of items pertaining to Gil Almonds war and a cracking family history. All that was missing were the medals. Just had to go to him DW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameron2165 Posted 20 December , 2012 Author Share Posted 20 December , 2012 Hi Andy, Well that is always going to be the question. Fingers crossed he wasn't the one who sold them! Cam Hi Dick, Good on you. Hopefully they will be passed on down the family, with his story. Cam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 22 December , 2012 Share Posted 22 December , 2012 To be honest, I would rather see medals that have been 'in the field' for years stay with collectors rather than go to a family whose interest may be fleeting or likely to break up a group. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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