The descendants of Donald GRANT are searching for his missing General Service Medal 1793-1814 awarded for his participation in the Battle of Maida.

Donald GRANT was born in Nigg, Scotland. He fought at the Battle of Maida and received the General Service Medal as a member of the 78th Regiment of Foot (Ross-shire Buffs).  The Battle of Maida took place on the 4th of July 1806, and was a battle between the British Expeditionary Force and a First French Empire division outside the town of Maida in Calabria, Italy during the Napoleonic Wars.

An example of a General Service Medal 1793-1814. Whilst this actual medal shows a clasp for Busaco, the missing General Service Medal of Donald GRANT may still have a clasp for Maida attached to the ribbon.

It is believed the General Service Medal with bar for Maida, ended up in New Zealand and we would dearly like to locate it.  We fully appreciate that anything could have happened to this medal and it may even be in possession of a museum or a private collector who values this medal in their collection.  However we would very much appreciate it, just to discover where it is and with your kindness, negotiate the possibility of selling it back to our family.

The family of James CARR, son of  William Carr and husband of Annie Carr, of John Street, Downpatrick, (County Down) are searching for his missing First World War Medals.

This medal set consists of the 1914 Star (colloquially referred to as the ‘Mons Star’), British War Medal and Victory Medal.  As such, James was part of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) sent to the Western Front prior to the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914.

James CARR served with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.  Sadly he died in Mons on 26th August 1914.

The 1914 Star, colloquially referred to as the Mons Star. It is a medal similar to this which was posthumously awarded to James CARR of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. His descendants are searching for any medals in his name.

In terms of the original troops sent to the Western Front in the early days of the Great War, it has been said that Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany was famously dismissive of the BEF.  It has been claimed that he allegedly issued an order on 19 August 1914 to “exterminate … the treacherous English and walk over General French’s contemptible little army”.  Subsequently the survivors of the regular army who served prior to the end of 1914 dubbed themselves “The Old Contemptibles”, although no evidence of Kaiser Wilhelm II ever issuing such order has ever been found.

Any assistance to help my family to recover these missing medals would be very much appreciated.

The First World War Victory Medal of Major Bertram Lawrence HERDON has been returned after being missing for nearly 100 years, just in time for the Centenary of Remembrance Day.  The medal return took place at the ANZAC Memorial in Sydney Australia …. a long way from where Bertram served during the Great War.

Victory Medal awarded to then Lieutenant Bertram Lawrence HERDON who served with the Indian Army during the Great War. This medal was returned to his descendants nearly 100 years after the Great War ended.

Major Bertram HERDON served with the Indian Army during the First World War.   At this time, Bertram was a Lieutenant and his service on the Indian frontier meant that he was spared from the carnage that was the Western Front.

This Victory Medal was found during 2016 by a British medal collector Angus McLeod who was travelling through Krakow in Poland and saw the award pinned to a French uniform.  Knowing that the medal did not historically relate to that particular uniform, he managed through broken German to convince the shop owner to sell the medal separately.  When Angus returned to his home in Spain and began to research the medal recipient, he located details about Bertram Lawrence HERDON on the genealogy  website Ancestry.com and made contact.  The wonderful staff at Ancestry Australia made contact with Medals Gone Missing and this medal return then became a real international affair.

David HERDON of Australia is the great nephew of Bertram HERDON and Medals Gone Missing tracked him down using Ancestry’s resources; and the rest is history.  The medal was returned by Ancestry’s Jason Reeve at the ANZAC Memorial in Sydney, just in time for the Centenary of Remembrance Day.

Many thanks go out to Ancestry.com for this amazing piece of community service which proves they are not just into genealogy for the commercial interests.  As usual, Medals Gone Missing researcher extraordinaire Sandra Smith went above and beyond the call of duty to facilitate his medal return.