Anzac
Day has become over the years, to Glyn and I, an incredible mix of requests for
help to return militaria, not just medals. At
the request of the families involved, we often have to self-censor our research.
This is even to the point of identifying the family relatives involved firstly,
in the loss and secondly, in the recovery.
The first story is about the letters of 407090 Flight Lieutenant Alexander Henry Hooper. Letters
written while flying as a navigator on bombing runs over Europe during WW2.
Ron W requested help to return them to Alexander’s family. This has
now been done. I was fortunately to get a copy of the letters one of which
stood out as it described Alex’s 17th mission over Germany. The ‘Big
One’ as he called it.
Then
came the return of the Mothers and Widows badge issued on behalf of VX119123 S/Sgt
James R. York. Judith found this item and wanted to return it to James’ family.
Then,
of course, are the requests via the RSL Clubs network for help in returning the
many medals that have turned up and have been handed in as a consequence of Anzac
Day. The RSL officials are often prompted on Anzac Day to get those boxes out,
take out the medals that have been sitting there for several years now and
return them.
Gordon’s
AASM 1945-1975, that he thought was gone for good, is one example of this. But
as he said in his email to me: ‘The Active Service Medal that I lost, was found
& I got back due to the thoughtfulness of nice people with the support of
the RSL ! The Anzac spirit is well &truly alive! ! Tks Bill’
And
Deb F who has now been christened by the family of 56057 Sgt. Keith Gordon Sharpley
as the Agatha Christie of Tasmania. Well done Deb, I’m glad I could help.
And
finally Jenn one of researchers from the Australian Surnames Genealogy Group,
who when asked to follow up on a small Engraved Silver Tiki. Really went to
town. Her unedited story is below:
At
the Anzac Day Dawn Service here in Bacchus Marsh - a friend of mine (who is a
member of the local SES sand was cooking the free breakfasts of bacon, eggs and
sausages) handed me a silver Tiki WWII keepsake that she and her husband had
found amongst coins donated to the local SES. On the back was engraved the
above name and service number. She asked how she could go about finding the
family to return it to. She trusted me to take it and so I set about tracking
this family.
Would
you believe there were two Ronald William MILES born about 9 years apart in NEW
ZEALAND – the first Ronald William MILES was born in 1912 in WELLINGTON NZ and
lived there his whole life - he was in the Airforce. The other Ronald William
MILES was born in 1921 and lived around the AUCKLAND and then ROTORUA –
he was in the Army. The difficulty was that the NZ WWII Service Records are not
available on line – so there was no way of checking or matching either of their
Service Numbers, however I felt confident that the Ronald William MILES b. 1912
who was in the Air Force was the correct man and the owner of the silver Tiki.
Ronald
William MILES married Louise Elspeth CLARK on 8th November 1941. He died on 20th
November 1983 – his wife Louise had predeceased him in February 1983 – they are
both buried in the KARORI Cemetery in Wellington.
The
parents of the WELLINGTON Ronald William MILES were Arthur Herbert MILES and
Louisa HANDLEY. Arthur was a Captain in the NZ Army and he died quite young in
1925 aged 35 years.
I
found a tree on Ancestry which had lots of photos of this family – so made
contact with the tree owner. She passed my contact details on to another
researcher whom she had helped to identify the people on numerous family
photos. He emailed me and gave me the names of their three sons, one born in
1945, another in 1950 and the third in 1951 – they are all living.
Next
it was the white pages on line – and I listed all the possible MILES with the
same initials as the three sons – only found 7 possible listings for two of the
sons. I rang the one in WELLINGTON – but it was not a relative. The second call
turned up the eldest son – John William MILES b. 1945. He was over the moon
with excitement as we confirmed that I had the correct son of the correct
Ronald William MILES. He knew nothing of the silver Tiki – our best guess is
that his father’s wife or mother may have given it to him when he went away to
war.
I
advised him that the Tiki would be posted back to him next week by the lady who
had found it.
Don’t
you love these happy endings.
Regards,
Jenn
The returned medal tally is now 2099
Gordon's AASM
The Sharpley medals
The Miles tiki
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