Reuniting medal with families?

[otter13]

Hi. The story runs that my grandad was taking a jar of pre-decimalisation coins to the bank to change into new money, when he met a man who was off to pawn a load of medals and memorobilia from the first world war ish. They swapped and me being a magpie, ended up with the medals.
I have a couple of names and even some numbers on some items. Do you think the families involved would be interested in having this stuff back? Where would I start with finding out? Just wondering if it's worth trying to find them. Thanks for any opinions. :)

[dot.haukes]

first thing is to establish what the medals are, there are so many, i found a great site a few months ago that shows pictures of medals and bars and clasps.
Once you have found out the era you can start to look for the person on the GRO index possibly, or even the census if they are WW1 or earlier.
But there is a really good way of doing this, you could contact the actual regiment and offer them the medals for their museum or archive, this would probably be the best way to sort it out.

[CheekyChops]

The families will probably be interested for sure!

My grandad won many medals in WWII but unfortunately, when my uncle was a child, he swapped his fathers medals for marbles with one of his friends! Now that I am interested in family history, I would love to have (or just see!!) the medals and often look on EBay on the off chance that someone is selling them.

[otter13]

Thanks for the answers. They are from world war one and before ,medals and tokens from charity events and such.
Some have names or numbers on. some don't. There at least 3 different names. It's going to take alot of ferreting i think but i really think I will give it try. CheekyChops you have convinced me that it could be a fun thing if I could eventually "send them home". :D

[munchie63]

you could try putting a name and army number on here id you want.

I've membership on Ancestry, which has ww1 records on-line and would be happy to check if the person survived.
Maybe someone else will be able to help track them for you ?

[otter13]

That is a good idea Munchie.

The main WW1 medal has this on the side:-
4566 SJT. A.L.F. FINIGAN 15-LOND-R
I wonder if the temperance medals might be his, there is no name on them.

I also have have some charity shield type things and a kit tag from a couple of different people named WATKINS.
The Kit Tag says:-
1516 W. WATKINS SUFF-Y
The other things don't have ID numbers on but one says SGT. MJR. WATKINS - GORDON HIGHrs- 05-06
And the other says:-
E. WATKINS Sept 1909

Thank you for the help and advice. :D

[derekpara]

Sgt. Finigan's medal refers to 15th London Regiment Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles. My grandfatther served in this regiment and his number was 4100.

I recommend you to read Jill Knight's wonderful book ' The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War - All Bloody Gentlemen.' This was a Territorial Army unit based in Somerset House in the Strand, London, and made up of Civil Servants, Post Office workers, bank clerks and men fron City offices. They were generally well educated and articulate and looked on the regiment almost like a gentleman's club. They suffered heavily on the Somme, and Paschaendale, particularly in the battle for High Wood.

Also, post a question on ' The Great War' forum. Remember to give as much information as possible and someone will come up with answers. An excellent WW! website.

Good luck.

Derek

[derekpara]

Also in the 'Soldiers' section of Great War Forum, if you ask if anyone can look up the medal index for those soldiers you will get prompt replies which will give units in which rhe soldiers served as well as medal entitlements etc.

[derekpara]

No comment ? Thanks, for example ?

[otter13]

I am very sorry Derek. I have been very unwell recently.
I appreciate you advice. Thank you.