Discovering My Grandfather’s Medals
This week’s Military Monday blog is written by Terry, one of our research volunteers. Terry has been volunteering with us since April, researching soldiers of the regiment. His family connection to the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry is what drew him to the museum in the first place, and resulted in an exciting discovery…
After various attempts at retiring after the age of 65, it took another 5 years before I decided that perhaps my life, and more importantly my body, should slow down to a more sedate pace.
After working for more than 53 years, this was going to be difficult. How was I going to occupy my free time and keep my brain somewhat active? I know, I’ll catch up with all those “I’ll do that job tomorrow” jobs. One of those was to try and locate my grandfather’s Military Medal which he won at Mory, France on the 25 August 1918.
A stereoscopic photograph of a night time raid near Mory in 1917. (NAM. 1972-08-67-2-146).
Although I was not fortunate enough to meet my grandfather, I had previously done some initial research learning that he was Sergeant James William Parker, of the 2/4th battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and found his service number and service duration.
With most medals, there is a story associated with them. After his demobilisation in 1919 he returned to Denaby, South Yorkshire to continue working as a coal miner, but due to ill health, now commonly known as emphysema, he had to leave his work. To support the family of four in a mining community he took up the role commonly termed as a “bookies runner”. Gambling only became legal in 1928, so whilst taking bets between the punter and bookie he was always keeping a close eye out for the local police.
However this was still a period of hardship, challenging circumstances with health and financial difficulties, so when one day he placed a larger than usual amount of money on the table, the family questioned him as to its source. He eventually admitted that he had pawned his First World War medals. Immediately the family visited the pawn broker’s shop, but were told that the medals had already been sold. Whether this was true or not was never investigated at the time.
Now retired, the task I decided to set myself was to try and locate these medals, trawling through various medal shops, dealers, eBay listings, but to no success. My search took me to contacting the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Museum for help, and it was this initial contact which led me to considering volunteering, after all I had both the time and inclination. Both history and being a volunteer appealed to me, hence I began working as a volunteer researcher at the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Research and Collections Centre in April 2024.
Whilst researching, I happened to repeat the above story to James, who has been coordinating the research in the Collections Centre, who offered to check the medal records. To my surprise they were stored within the museum’s medal gallery, not more than 50 feet from where I was carrying out my research work.
James William Parker’s medals, on display in our newly-reopened medal gallery.
What a find for me personally! The fact that I took up volunteering, combined with my interest in history has reaped benefits. Now the next step forward is to determine the course these medals took, from pawn brokers shop in Denaby, South Yorkshire to the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry medal collection.
The medal gallery, together with the rest of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Research and Collections Centre, will be open for research visits and tours starting from the 11 September.
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Research and Collection Centre Open Days
Second Wednesday of every month from 11 September, 10am – 4pm
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Medal Room Tours
Fourth Wednesday of every month from 23 October, 10am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm
(No session in December due to Christmas break)
No booking required, just drop in.
All images of objects from the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Collection are shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), credit to Heritage Doncaster.