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A medal group I was given. A sad story.

Article about: Hi Guys, I though that I would share this medal group with you. In a way, the story behind these medals in quite sad. Some years ago I was working at a house. My Dad knew the owner, Frank, f

  1. #1

    Default A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    Hi Guys, I though that I would share this medal group with you. In a way, the story behind these medals in quite sad.

    Some years ago I was working at a house. My Dad knew the owner, Frank, from their days together at the village school. During one of the days we were working there, the conversation turned to the war. I was telling Frank about my Jeep etc as he was interested in old vehicles. Frank said "just a minute" and dissappeared upstairs. He came down and said "I would like you to have these". He handed me his Dad's medal and some photos of his Dad. I told him there was no way I could accept them. "These are your Dad's medals!" I told him. But Frank was insistant saying how he had no family and had never married. He said if he died they might well end up in the junk pile? So I kind of reluctantly agreed to acept them. As you can see, Fred (Frank's Dad) had never even put the medals onto thier ribbons, never mind even wore them. Each medal was still in it's cellophane wrapper. They had simply sat in the box for 50 odd years until I was given them. About two years after Frank gave me the medals, he sadly passed away.

    Fred was a farm labourer in the village before and after the war. He was member of the Royal Army Service Corps and served in North Africa and Italy. Fred can be seen in the photo of the soldiers with the barrel of booze, him being the one in the middle.

    The medals are the Africa Star, Italy Star and 1939-45 Star plus the War Medal 1939-1945.

    Cheers, Ade.
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  2. #2
    Harry Morant
    ?

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    Sad but thanks for telling the story. He was right in that it is much better for them to go to you who will respect them and be a worthy custodian rather than going off to who knows where.

  3. #3
    ?

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    Quote by Harry Morant View Post
    Sad but thanks for telling the story. He was right in that it is much better for them to go to you who will respect them and be a worthy custodian rather than going off to who knows where.
    I totally agree.

  4. #4

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    Thanks for the coments guys!

    A least this thread will keep his memory alive.

    Cheers, Ade.

  5. #5

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    I also agree ! medals are better in your hands Adrian !!!

  6. #6

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    A couple of years ago I advertized in the local (Ontario) papers for medals.

    A lady from a nearby town called me to ask about a medal she had. She described a perfectly ordinary British 1914-20 War Medal. I asked her to read me the inscription on the edge of the medal.

    "There's a man's name there!" She hadn't realized that WWI medals were named. It had been awarded to a private in a CEF Battalion.

    "Do you have the Victory Medal that was (usually) issued with the BWM," I asked. "Or a Star?"

    "No. I just found this one."

    "Where?"

    "On the Smith's Falls town dump. I was walking the dog, and just saw it lying there."

    I'm happy to say that she decided to keep it, once I'd told her what it represented....that some soldier had slugged it out in the mud for maybe four years and that his family had cared so little that when he died, they put his medal in the trash.

  7. #7
    3mk
    3mk is offline
    ?

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    Sad story
    God Bless Frank and Fred
    I think you should make a display honoring Fred

  8. #8

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    That is indeed a sad story, throwing away someones medal is truly awful, but at least it was saved in the end.

    I have Fred's medals (still in their box) and photos on show in their own small glass display case.

    Cheers, Ade.

  9. #9

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    A few years ago I decided to make an inhabitable room out of an old lean-to on the back of my house......knocked a few windows in the walls and set about insulating the place. In the process I found a pencilled inscription on the original board wall: “Vernon Cooper 8 Jan.1937".

    I knew that Vernon, a member of the last family to live in the house before it became a hunting cabin, had been killed in Italy, so a bit of research seemed in order.

    Vernon was wounded in September 1944 but his regiment was stretched so thin that even the walking wounded were put back into the line (see “The Regiment” by Farley Mowat, who also served in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division).

    In mid-December, Vernon’s B Coy established a bridgehead north of the Naviglio Canal, but the tanks were slow in getting up to support them.

    Not so the Panzers. They counter-attacked at dawn on 13 Dec.

    B Coy kaput! Vernon was killed.

    So there was no way I was going to cover up Vernon’s autograph on my wall, I framed the section, put glass over it, and behind it placed a set of the four medals he would have been entitled to, with a couple of Hasty-Pee collar dogs.

    I also got the township to call my road Cooper Drive in his honor when they got around to allocating street names.

    Moral of the story: Those of us who collect and respect the artifacts of war and honor the men (of all armies) who served honorably, are doing something important.

  10. #10
    Rick
    ?

    Default Re: A medal group I was given. A sad story.

    Thanks a million for sharing these stories, very apt considering the anniversary of D-Day these men must be remebered. ALL your efforts i am sure would be very much appreciated.

    Rick.

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