A collection of stolen World War Two medals have been returned to their rightful owners with a bit of help from the Caroline Springs RSL.
The service medals for Harold Hawking were found discarded beside a bin in Windsor after being stolen from a storage cage in Albert Park belonging to Mr Hawking’s son, Paul.
With a friend of the man who found the medals sharing a connection to the Caroline Springs RSL, president Andrew Marshall set about returning them.
“We ended up with them and I worked with the vice president at the Melton branch to check up on them and eventually found their owner,” Mr Marshall said.
“To some people these medals mean a hell of a lot, so to get them back to the family is really special.”
The medals, complete with service records from Hawking Senior’s time in Syria and New Guinea, were returned to Paul Hawking on June 5, who was happy to have the special mementos back.
“I’m not sure when they were taken, I just went to find them in my storage cage one day and they were gone,” he said.
“There were lots of things far more valuable in there, but that’s what they took, and they obviously didn’t want them if they were just put next to a bin.
“It’s good to have them back in the family, and we’ve got a bit of a story to go with it now, as well as the historical significance.”
Ewen McRae
