Searching for lost WW1 medals

[Guest 12rachel]

Hello

I am searching for my Grandfather's war medals which have been lost/sold and I would like to find them again. My Grandfather's name was Percy John Hills, he was in the Northumberland Fusiliers and his regiment number was 1042. The medal roll index card shows that there was a Victory medal, British medal and a 1914 star. If anyone has them or has any information that may help me find them I would really appreciate it. I can be contacted via this forum.

Thank you.

Rachel Browning

[BillyH]

You could try these 2 links for starters, hopefully someone more epert than I will offer other tips :

http://www.findmymedals.com/

http://www.britishmedalforum.com/

Best of luck, BillyH.

[dundeesown]

Hi Rachel

I wish you well in your quest,but you may have more of a chance if you put your request on The British Medal Forum.

Gary

[SiegeGunner]

Welcome to the forum, Rachel. Have you explored/exhausted the possibility that your Gf's medals might be with another family member? If so, do you know, roughly, when they 'went missing'?

[Guest 12rachel]

Thanks all for your replies. I am in the process of registering with the British Medal Forum. I know that my Dad had the medals as recently as 2002 when he tried to hand them over to the Northumberland Fusiliers museum for safekeeping. After that I don't know what happened. He has since passed away and having cleared his house there is no evidence of them, so I am assuming that he has sold them or given them to someone for safe keeping. I have tried the Fusiliers museum with no luck and also local archives and family history archives again with no luck. I am just trying whatever avenues that I can think of. I should have also mentioned that he received an Indian General Service medal (North West frontier) in 1908 which again I don't know its location.

[Ron Clifton]

There was an interesting story on the BBC news yesterday, involving a chap who had visited the BBC/IWM "roadshow which was in Suffolk at the time. The chap's grandfather (I think) had suffered from shell-shock and threw away his medals in disgust.

More recently, the family decided that they would like to get copies, so they contacted the Medal Office, with proof of next of kin, and asked if they could have copies. The Medal Office replied:

"We can do better than that. We can give you the originals!"

Apparently they had been found in the street after grandfather had thrown them away, and handed in to the police. The police had returned them to the Medal Office who had been patiently sitting on them for the pasdt 90 years.

The family, of course, are delighted.

Ron