Medals Stolen!

[Guy]

Hi Chaps,

A friend of mine has just discovered that his fathers medals are missing from his home. They were hidden in his pantry. At some point since last September someone has stolen them. This person was probably a workman of some description as the gentleman in question is elderly and has had a lot of work done on his house in the last six months. The police could find no evidence of forced entry.

The madals in question are a First World War trio to I.J.A. Spinks of the Norfolks. I will try to get his number also. If anyone see's or is offered these medals I would be very grateful if you could contact me at, guy@axisandallied.com

Many thanks, Yours, Guy

[DJT]

Hi Guy,

Thats terrible, i hope your friend gets them back

It might be a good idea posting your message here too:

http://www.1914-1918.org/forum/index.php

They run many stolen WW1 trio threads and you might have better luck there.

[Guy]

Hi Des,

Great stuff, will do, cheers mate.

Yours, Guy.

[Greeves]

Guy, that's horrible. I'll put a posting up at www.britishmedalforum.com - if you can get the service number at some point please post it in this thread - it might help. Also, what part of Britain were they stolen from? The thief might try to sell the medals locally.

Geoff

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guy, I will pin this thread to the top for a few days to keep it in the public eye.

Cheers, Ade.

[Greeves]

A mate on the British Medal Forum had a quick look at the Medal Index Card: the medals should be named as follows 40106 Pte I J A Spinks Norfolk Regt .

[Guy]

Hi Chaps,

Thank you so much for the fantastic response. Even if the medals can't be recovered my friend is very touched that so many nice people have shown an interest in his plight.

Ade, thank you for pinning this thread, it is very good of you mate.

Geoff, thank you so much for all your efforts. I am fairly sure that the I. J. A. Spinks your friend has found is the one as they are unusual initials and he was a Norfolk. Incidentally the initials stand for Ivan, James, Augustus, Spinks and the medals were stolen from Coltishall village, Norfolk.

Many thanks once again to all who have offered help and sympathy, it would be lovely if this could be brought to a succsesfull conclusion.

All The Very Best, Yours, Guy.

[Blindpew]

I hate 'tea-leafs'.
On the off chance I will keep an eye on E-bay when I'm doing my browsing there.Its a long shot since so much time has passed but I will keep an eye out.
I don't know if its possible but maybe if you contacted e-bay with the relevant info, they might, if possible, check their records on sales over the last few months to see if medals with the name in question have been sold there.

I wish you success in tracking these medals down.

[Greeves]

I've had a search through the completed sales on ebay - since the theft - using appropriate search terms and haven't come up with anything. More than likely it's gone to a local pawn brokers or antique store?

[Guy]

Hi Geoff,

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to do that for me.

The local antique shops, pawn brokers and coin shops etc are my next ports of call. Managed to cover my immediate area last week and will be trying a bit further afield now.

All The Very Best, Guy.

[Blindpew]

My latest thoughts regarding this matter.

What gets me about the older folks, is they went through hell and then some to give us the world we live in now.
A world that has scumbag theifs who are so thick they didn't even have a clue what they were stealing.
I reckon thats whats happened,- some git sees "shiney things", decides they must be worth money, steals them, then finds out one way or another, that they are useless to him because they are named.At this point being the scumbag he is, he probably just threw them away without any thought from his one brain cell.
I hope this isn't the case and again I hope they can be traced.

Anyway what I would like to suggest is, if possible, perhaps the MOD can be contacted and a request for duplicates made for Mr Spinks, and we could perhaps have a whip-round?
I would like to start the ball rolling by offering £10 towards the replacemants, if they can be got?
I know its not much but its a start.

I don't know about these things, or even if duplicates can be made, could someone in the know look into that please?

Meanwhile I'm still keeping an eye out on E-bay....

[Guy]

Dear Colin,

I agree entirely. I don't think these w#####s can realise what people went through! Life now is so easy that it is probably inconceivable to live in such hardship.

It is very good of you to offer to help like this but I don't think we can get the medals replaced. I have told Ivan (Junior) of your offer and he was stunned, in his own words, "It's nice to know that there are still decent, feeling people in this world"

I know I am re-iterating here but Ivan has asked me to thank you all for your empathy and help. He said he is amazed that there are so many "young" people who feel so strongly about what his own and his fathers generation did that his faith in people has been restored after this horrible experience.

I too would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have helped either publically or in pm's, I am exceptionally gratefull.

All The Very Best, Yours, Guy.

[leigh kitchen]

Rather than look for official replacements, there are modern good quality copies of the medals available in the appropriate metals - I think Worcester Arms or similar produce them? (Or is that the name of a pub>). It would be easy & fairly low cost to obtain those sort of replacements & have them impressed with details.