Exactly 101 years after Warrnambool soldier Alfred Dale died on the battlefields of the Western Front, his lost war medal has returned home.
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On Saturday, to mark the anniversary, the medal was officially handed back to family members by RSL president John Miles at the Warrnambool war memorial where his name is inscribed.
David Hall also laid a wreath at the memorial in remembrance of his great uncle who died on May 6, 1916 from gunshot wounds. “He was one of the first to be killed on the Western Front,” David’s wife Lorraine said.
Two of Alfred’s war medals are still missing and they are also hoping to track down his bronze memorial plaque, often referred to as the Dead Man’s Penny.
Alfred’s name is listed on the Warrnambool war memorial just above his cousin, Edwin Dale, who was killed on the first day of the Gallipoli campaign.
In a surprise for the Halls, historian David McGinness was able to show them Edwin’s memorial plaque which forms part of the Warrnambool RSL memorabilia collection.
The memorial plaques were presented, along with a scroll, to WWI fallen soldiers’ next-of-kin. Many were placed on soldiers’ gravestones but this wasn’t possible for Edwin, whose body was never found.
Mrs Hall stumbled upon the lost medal while she was doing some online research into her husband’s ancestors who came to Australia from Ireland and began a quarry business at Wangoom in the 1800s.
When she typed in Alfred’s name, a post from not-for-profit organisation Medal Gone Missing came up. The organisation had purchased the medal off ebay and administrator Gary Traynor and volunteer Sandra Smith set about trying to reunite the medal with family members. “Without them we wouldn’t have it,” Mr Hall said.
While Alfred’s parents received the war medals after his death, the Halls are not sure when or how they came to be missing. “It’s fantastic for a medal to come back into the family. It started in the family, went into the ether and now it’s come back,” Mr Hall said.
While the Halls never met Alfred, the significance of the day stirred up emotions for a man who went to war and never returned.
Alfred and Edwin enlisted in Warrnambool in January 1915. Their brothers, Robert and Frank, joined up in August. Alfred went first to Egypt before arriving in Gallipoli just days after the first landing. He later went to the Western Front in France where he died. He is buried at Merville. “There were four cousins, two came back and two didn’t,” Mr Hall said.
