"jmcquown" > wrote in
:


>
> I wonder if it would be possible for me to get replacements (not
> "replicas") based on his service records. I'll have to call the base
> to inquire.


I don't know what the system is like over there, but here it's only the
person who earned the medal that can get a replacement. You may have to
go the replica route.

To find out your dad's entitlement (ie, all the gongs he's been awarded)
all you should have to do is send his service number/name to the
Department of Defence and ask.

I was lucky with my granddad. He lost his WW1 medals in a fire in '35,
and couldn't afford the 1 Pound replacement fee at that time. But, at
the end of WW2, he'd had enough of the life and just wanted to try and
be a 'normal' person again. To the extent that he never collected his
WW2 medals.

About 40 odd years later, I started researching his service and tried to
pay the 1 Pound (about $50 in todays money) to get the replacements. No
deal. *But* they still had his original WW2 medals, so we were able to
get them.

To complete the whole set, I went to a Pawn Shop and sourced an
identical set of WW1 medals to what my gd was awarded. They belonged to
someone else, but they were originals, and earned in the same way.
Obviously, the owner, or his descendants, had fallen on hard times and
needed to make some cash.



--
Peter Lucas
Brisbane
Australia

Mi b'aill docha basaich air m' ris, sin mair air m'glun.

(I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees.)