Success Stories

Family Receives Lost Uncle's Photo - Herbert LUHRS

A touch of ebay, a little bit of luck – and an act of great kindness has reunited one family with a photograph of their long lost uncle. It was not known amongst the descendants of the LUHRS family that a photograph of “Uncle Bert” existed – let alone a picture of him when he joined the AIF during the Great War. In fact, they had no idea that Herbert had even joined the army at all!

Herbert Norman LUHRS was too young to join up at the outbreak of war in 1914. Born in 1899, he was not old enough to enlist until 1918 and by this time he was just 18 years of age. Embarking on the 23rd of July, 1918 – he did not arrive in France until the 31st of January, 1919 and fortunately was too late to see active service. He was subsequently mustered as a Driver with the 4th Australian Motor Transport Company and after a brief military service; returned to Australia on the 2nd of February, 1920.

When Herbert’s photo appeared for sale on ebay, the Medals Gone Missing Website matched his name with a request listing. The family made a bid which they thought would be more than adequate, but much to their disappointment – they were outbid. Contact was made with the successful ebay bidder and a promise was made to forward a ”copy” of Herbert’s photo, which was certainly better than nothing.

But when Patricia (McGRATH – Herbert’s niece) met up with Michael McCORMACK - the new owner of the photograph, she was in for a very pleasant surprise. During an Anzac Day Dawn Service in country N.S.W. - he informed Patricia that he would drop some copies of the photo over on the following day. So when Michael did arrive, Patricia was ‘bowled over’ with joy when he offered to hand over the original photo. “I could not believe it” Patricia said. “He certainly was under no obligation to give us the original and I was ecstatic to receive Uncle Bert’s photo. It just shows that there are still some good people in this world”.

Michael later told the Medals Gone Missing Administrator “to see the delight on her face and knowing that I’ve done the family a good turn makes me feel really happy”. And happy the family is. Patricia comes from a very large family and will distribute copies to all of Herbert’s descendants. In fact, this - and the return of a medal (another story) is incentive to track down the other side of the LUHRS family of which contact has been lost. So – with a little bit of luck – and through the generosity of a good man – Herbert Norman LUHRS has come home to his family. WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE LUHRS FAMILY – SEE THE SHORT STORY IN THE ARTICLES OF INTEREST