15 November 2014

Daphne Olsen

This story had several facets to it that I didn't expect when I first received the WWII medals awarded to QF266064 Daphne Elizabeth Olsen.
The medals came to me from WO2 Allen S who had received them from a gent who recovered then from a shirt donated to a charity store. When I first looked at the rim it struck me that the naming was done by lazer engraving rather then impressed. That means that the medals were issued after the early 1990s when this method was first introduced.
It didn't take long to work out that Daphne was married to QX54716 David Olsen. This lead me to find that David died on 16 Mar 45. The next piece of information was a memorial notice I found in the Townsville Bullition.
This confirmed that David died of wounds but more importantly there is an additional clue that David and Daphne had a son also named David. The electoral roll provided me the address that Daphne was living at in 1949 but then the clues ran out. I returned to the newspaper and deciphered that the other part of the notice was placed my Mr and Mrs N.G. Clark. This turned out to be Norman Gutherson Clark, Daphne's father. This name lead me to a family tree on Ancestry and ultimately to David Olsen who I spoke to this afternoon.
Thank you to Russell Clark for his assistance.
The returned medal tally is now 1565.
 Even though it is hard to read this is a picture of David's head stone at the Brisbane (Lutwyche) Cemetery.

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