Family's plea for Coventry war hero's lost medals

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Family's plea for Coventry war hero's lost medals

Postby dutchman » Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:02 pm

William John Walmsley was a gunner in the Royal Artillery during World War Two and had four precious medals

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A desperate appeal has been made by a family to find precious war medals in time for Remembrance Sunday.

Dean Wainwright wants to locate his grandad’s World War II medals which have gone missing from his late uncle’s home in Tile Hill in Coventry.

“I have always been incredibly proud of my grandad’s time in service and have been honoured to wear the medals in the past and, with Remembrance Sunday coming up, we just want to find them,” said Mr Wainwright, who lives in Bedworth.

His grandfather William John Walmsley, was a WWII Royal Artilleryman Gunner and had four precious medals.

“I remember grandad never wanted to talk about it really, no-one really knows a lot about what he did in the war,” the dad-of-two explained.

“When I was younger, I was part of a drama group, we were asked to find out our grandparents’ memories of the war.

“That’s when my fascination started really. Then my children were doing something about the war at school and they took in my grandad’s medals.”

After his grandad sadly passed away, they were entrusted to his uncle: “I had privilege of wearing grandad’s medals in commemoration evening at the Bedworth Civic Hall in November 2014, I was full of pride wearing them” Mr Wainwright added.

He gave them back to his uncle: “He said to me that he would leave them to me in his will, I was so pleased,” he said.

Sadly his uncle passed away several months ago and, when Mr Wainwright’s cousins came to sorting out his Tile Hill-based home, they looked for the medals but they were not there.

“There was no sign of the medals anywhere, or his will,” he said.

“We have no idea where they could be, because we cannot trace his will or find out if he even made one, we don’t know where they are. They could have been lost somewhere or misplaced.

“These medals mean such a lot to my family, we just want to find them,” the 43-year-old said.

In the meantime, anyone who thinks that they know where the medals are or have seen them can email claire.harrison01@reachplc.com

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