Lost family service medals

chem

Hi all,

I was talking to a work mate yesterday. He was telling me that his dad, was in the Irish army and was in the congo. He had several medals which he framed and kept on display. His dad has past away, and his medals were sold (without permission :mad:) by another family member. Has anyone any ideas on how I could help him track down the medals? It would mean alot to his mum and him to have them back in the family.

Thanks all, Chem.

Morlar

I think the best bet might be to ask the person who sold them who did they sell them to & take it from there. If this is not possible it's going to be an even longer shot.

If they were sold to a aprivate individual offering them back the original price they paid might work (they would be bound to ask for proof of famiily though).

If it's an auction house they might be able to pass on details.

If you look in magazines like the armourer there are long running adverts trying to trace family groupings, also on forums in signatures and so on. Another unfortunate thing that happens ocassionaly is one family member sells them then another family member contacts the buyer or next buyer years later saying they were stolen & looking for them back.

arnhem44

Hi chem,Morlar has the main points covered regarding the approach someone should take to try and find such items but bare in mind that if the medals are unnamed and have been taken out of the frame and once again sold on this group will most likely be lost and its replacements of these medals which your friend will have to start looking for instead.its pretty sad that a family member has sold on his fathers medals,seems to happen so many times these days.Some people don't seem to hold the same regard for such items as others.

davetherave

If there were several medals and overseas service it's probable that there was a service medal which would have been presented with name and number on the back. So hopefully they have been kept together.

kerryphoto

If they were sold at an auction house they won't be able to pass on the details because that information is confidential, but they could ask the auctioneer to contact the buyer with an offer to buy them back. Hope this help and I hope they get their medals back.

chem

Thanks all for the replys. I hope to have some pics of the medals up soon, from the family album. I was told they were sold to a pawn shop in Dublin. Do they keep records?

Morlar

chem wrote: »

Thanks all for the replys. I hope to have some pics of the medals up soon, from the family album. I was told they were sold to a pawn shop in Dublin. Do they keep records?

If they were pawned then yes they have to keep records & give the seller a receipt & track repayments (not sure how long they have to keep the records for if the item owner defaults on repayments).

If they were sold straight 2nd hand - no idea - hopefully someone else will know the score on that. Good luck with tracking them down - this really is a horrible story and it would be good if it gets a happy ending.

It might even be an idea to check out the North Star or Teachers club fairs and talk to all the dealers there with details of what is in the grouping in case anyone has crossed paths with it. The medal society of Ireland could also be worth checking with in case any of their members has seen them offered anywhere or knows who has them now.

Wicklowrider

Back in the 1960's a very well dressed/well spoken gentleman arrived at my Grandmothers council house door. He was asking questions about my family and their military service. My grandmother assumed he was there about a war widows pension issue she had at the time. After he had established that he had the right person he produced my Grandfathers war medals from both ww1 & ww2. He had bought them at auction and had felt there was something not right about them being for sale. Somebody had removed them from the family home and sold them unbeknownst to my Grandmother, Father and family.He insisted on returning them without taking payment. He said he knew that it was unlikely the medals were sold unwillingly but had assumed they'd been sold out of financial need.

Hope you get them back O.P.

R.Dub.Fusilier

cant help with the op but am sorry to hear what happened to the family treasures. but this is a sort of related matter. i know some one who had a great uncle who was a sergent in the royal dublin fusiliers and served in both the boer war and WW1 and for his actions won a military medal . one of the family members , who wasnt short of a few quid as he is an accountant, got hold of the MM and put it up for auction and got £620 for it in 2002. none of the family knew he was going to sell it. one is now hoping to get it back through the auction house. just to give my opinion on medals , if someone could prove to me that i had medals in my collection that was a family member and intended to keep them , i would sell them back for the price i paid for them.